Broken Harmony by Nightfall
by The Bruised Twilight
Summary: This is the tale of two unlikely companions as they attempt to escape from a fierce dragon poacher as well as keeping their flightless dragon companion safe from his grasp. Secrets will unfold and emotions will be stretched; but will these two newfound friends be able to handle it?
1. Chapter 1

The forest in the mountains of an uncharted area was quiet this evening; the stars were dazzling in the midnight blue sky above, moonlight shone down onto the treetops and some had even peeked itself through the gaps in the plants, the rest of the forest was dark and the floor was somewhat damp from the rainstorm the night before.

Wind rustled the flora of the area. Noises from several nocturnal animals also filled the night such as hoots rang out from the nocturnal owls that made their home in the forest as well as the little chittering noises of raccoons and opossum.

The forest smelt wet and rather fresh, much to the satisfaction of one's sense of smell; it'd make one a fool to not fall into a near trance from the loveliness of all the forest had to offer.

It quickly captured the heart of one particular being; it wasn't even a human and yet it was intelligent enough to appreciate the beauty of the night in the forest. The large and deep green eyes it possessed was staring up at the glittering sky.

The beast was a reptilian; just as dark as the night itself, large bat-like wings were relaxed over its back which had a single row of plates that scaled down its back to a certain extent before splitting off to either side of its tail before stopping not too far above the two tail fins on the tip of the reptile's tail. As mentioned before, it had green eyes that were currently soft, bright and glittered in awe from seeing the sky between the rustling leaves, it craved to see more.

This sort of creature had many names; the unholy offspring of lightning and death, the deceivingly toothless, but the most common name of all would be; the Night Fury.

The male beast's paws were sunk nearly an inch into the wet soil in the forest with every step he took on the muddy pathway; he hadn't minded the mud in the least, being a wild creature, of course, it was literally nothing to him.

He continued to walk on the pathway that led out to a lovely opening with grasses that stood about a foot high and gently wove around under the gusts of the wind. His lips curled up at the corners into a smile as he now obtained a much better view of the starry skies and even the milky pattern that was lying in an entrancing twirl.

The wide, somewhat stubby paws now lifted up onto a large boulder and rested on his stomach atop of it. He lifted one paw over the other and laid his head over his folded paws. The dragon could feel his body fall into a complete state of relaxation, something that he hadn't been able to feel for quite some time.

How this dragon ached to fly up in the beautiful and aweing sky above him. How he desired to feel the wind hitting his face and the wind beneath his wings. How he wanted so desperately to feel free; but alas, he could not.

Though the dragon had the wings, the muscles that aided him in his flight were weakened over some time. His muscles were not completely deteriorated but weakened enough to where he couldn't get himself to fly, or even glide for that matter.

His muscles were weakened after he was locked away by horrible beings; the beings were like primates but had much less fur, pink skin, they stood on two legs and had strange appendages on their forearms that helped them grip things more adequately one would presume.

The dark-scaled beast was grateful that he at least had the speed to flee from them when his time had come, or perhaps that it was mere luck, the beings _did_ have rapidly firing mechanics that could have easily lodged a metal spike in its target's side. Perhaps it _was_ just luck.

The reptilian creature groaned and lowered his weak wings to either side of the rock and he stared up towards the sky once again. His yearn to fly was almost too much to bear but he knew that he couldn't, and he was already growing tired after his full day of running (with an occassion rest stop, of course) just to make sure he was clear of those dreadful beings. Though he wasn't able to fly, he could still run at astonishing speeds for quite the length of time.

Slowly, the eyelids of the Night Fury began to flutter shut. He was so exhausted and rest is exactly what he required as of right now. The head of the giant reptile lowered onto his paws again and he rested his head there, now he began to doze off and fall into a sleep slumber. Surely he'd be safe here for the night.


	2. Chapter 2

"No, you don't understand!" Bellowed a large man that stood at heavy wooden doors. His face was red with rage as he looked to the men behind him, his dark eyes were fierce. "That creature was going to make us _rich_ in gold! A drop of his blood alone would have served us the finest pearls; and you bring me this dismay? You let him escape!"

The man stood around six-and-a-half feet high, his large square-shaped jaw was covered thickly with facial hair, his shoulders were broad, his eyes were such a dark shade of brown that they were almost black, his nose was rather blunt and a long scar ran down his face from his left temple to his jaw. He was truly a large and fearsome man.

"How were we supposed to know it'd escape?" Spoke up a man from the middle of the group of males that served under the large and fearsome leader.

"It happened so fast! We couldn't stop him." Another spoke up, this man was near the front of the group.

"No excuses!" Roared the leader; with the loss of such a valuable creature, he had no time to be wasting with his bunch of ignorant servents. "Already have I sent out a search party for it. I presume that the beast can't fly, judging by the witnesses saying that it ran for as far as their eye could see. He shouldn't have gone off too far if he can't fly."

"Do you think that they'll be okay? The beast didn't leave without blasting fire at _at least_ six of our men!" Another man called out from the back of the group.

"I don't give a damn if they'll be okay!" The cold leader shouted at the men while slamming a fist up against the stone wall just beside the wooden door. "Just as long as they bring back my dragon!"

* * *

><p>A group of men, around fifteen or so, rode on the backs of strong stallions. Their horses moved at a slow trot as the men urged them to follow along the trail of the pawprints of the black dragon from the night before. They'd been going for quite some time and non one knew how long it would take before they found the rare beast.<p>

"See anything yet?" One insignificant man from the middle of the group asked. He turned his gaze to the man that led the others atop of his chestnut-coated stallion.

The man from the front turned around as his horse continued to walk forward. His eyes were an oak-like brown shade and even somewhat hardened and his jaw was somewhat long and was surely strong looking, his dark hair was flicked up and off to the side slightly. The man also had a fair build to match with his jaw and his masculine pair of arms. Even along his jaw was a very thin layer of facial hair.

"Nothing yet. We just need to keep following the trail, we'll find it soon and we won't have to be hearing from Sanguine again." He spoke in a soft, deep and even a somewhat rumbling voice. Fairly unique for the man to carry so many traits in his voice alone.

"He'll want it back as soon as possible and what Sanguine wants-" One man attempted to continue but the man up in front turned his head forward sharply and cut him off in the middle of his sentence.

"Sanguine will wait as long as he has to before we take that thing back. Besides, he never gave us a deadline; he said 'as soon as possible.' He can wait for a few days maybe." He grinned mischeviously.

"Dragoon, don't you think you're being," Another man spoke up, glancing at the others around him before continuing with what he was going to say. "Irresponsible about this?"

"And if I am?" Dragoon questioned brusquely. "Honestly, _what_ is going to go wrong if we're a few days late?"

The men gazed at him and each other, then back at him before falling silent amongst each other. It always seemed so pointless to argue with Dragoon; so inane to even bother speaking to him sometimes because of this.

A moment of silence fell over the men as they continued to ride on the backs of their stallions, shifting only occasionally from the discomfort the saddles gave their lower-backs.

Thick grey clouds covered up the skies in a murky blanket. No sunlight peeked through the thick clouds and it all remained a plethora of dark and light shades of grey. Of course, this was common weather during the area's rainy season.

Slowly, the stallion that Dragoon rode on stopped in its tracks and snorted in refusal to go on. Uncertain as to why the horse stopped, Dragoon looked down at the creature.

"What's going on?" He patted his horse's neck as a subtle hint to urge him on forward. "Let's move!"

The chestnut stallion snorted and stepped backwards, shaking his head and staying in its spot. It proved itself as not wanting to go any farther than it had by stubbornly taking yet another step backwards.

"You've got to be kidding." Dragoon groaned then gave a swift nudge to his horse's flank. "C'mon! Forward, my steed!"

"Looks like your horse is stuck." One of his men, who happened to have a foreign accent, had pointed out the obvious with a lowered brow. "He doesn't look like he plans on budgin' anytime soon."

Dragoon looked over towards the foreign man with a deadpanned face then back down at his stallion with a face that showed he was determined to get the horse moving. He tugged on the reins of his horse and swiftly nudged it in both of its flanks.

His horse snorted at him and reared up, its front hooves seeming to look like it was clawing at the air before falling back onto all of its four legs. Dragoon was surely having his patience tested by the stallion's stubborn ways of refusing to go forward and now gave it a firm kick to get it to move now, seeing as the simple nudges did nothing to help.

After the kick hit the stallion's flank, it whinnied loudly and leapt ahead; the horse running through the forest and doing its best to dodge the plethora of timber that surrounded them.

The men behind remaineed unsure of whether to go after Dragoon and his out-of-control steed or to laugh and be relieved at the fact that his horse had become rampant and ridded them of him for who knew how long.

The stallion continued to dash amongst the trees, doing the best it could to avoid the timber; regardless of dodging the trees, it was a reckless run that had unnerved Dragoon as he was concerned for the well-being of himself and his mode of transportation.

"Easy, _easy_!" He called to the horse, which was a useless action seeing that the horse was unwilling to listen to him before and it didn't appear as if it was going to listen anytime soon. "Settle down!"

After looking up from his steed, Dragoon saw with his oak-shaded eyes that his stallion was dashing towards a tree; a tree which had happened to be in its blindspot. He sharply tugged up the reins to halt the running or at least to deter it.

"Come on, move!" He shouted at his steed that still refused to listen to him but because of the sharp tug he gave it from the reins, the horse was forced to move from the direction of the tree, saving it from a most possibly devastating charge straight into the timber. This made Dragoon sharply sigh with relief.

His relief was short-lived, however. He still had to help lead out his steed from the forest. It all appeared to move in a blur as his adrenaline pumped wildly to stop his horse or to get them into a clearing hopefully, and in one piece.

However, Dragoon didn't know that with each tug he gave on the horse's reins, that his horse became more and more agitated.

He continued to tug around on the reins to lead the horse until it gave him a sudden rough buck and swung its head around wildly; this both hit the rider firmly in the collarbone, which was hard enough to stun him, and also tug the reins from Dragoon's grip.

The horse bucked once more and Dragoon fell back into the thick and goopy mud on the forest floor before his stallion began to dash off without him.

The oak-eyed male groaned and coughed harshly as he began to try to catch his breath that was taken from him in the slam against his collarbone and the fall. He placed his hands on the surface of the mud then began to push down as his hands sunk into the filth before he actually began to attempt getting to his feet. His first attempt was a fail and he fell back again.

Now he groaned with frustration and tried once again; pushing himself to his feet then began to force himself to stand up. He carefully picked up and dragged his feet through the forest floor muck until he could put his hands up on a fir sturdily and leaned one of his shoulders against it.

His heart was still pounding aggressively in his chest and sweat rolled down his forehead, he was also trying to calm his breathing; the adrenaline in his body was slowly dying down as he calmed.

His breathing slowly lightened up and he shifted his gaze from side to side. He hadn't a clue on how far out he was into the timberland; he had lost track of where he was not too long after his stallion ran off while he was still mounted atop of it.

Slowly, he removed his hands from the fir tree and he stood up straight. His oak-brown eyes gazed around once again, but this time he looked for the men that he had brought out with him. He listened for the sound of trotting or to even listen for simple footfalls.

With the grey skies above him, he began to think that none of his troops would come to assist him and return him to the group but would instead settle down and build shelter soon.

After all, he knew that he was disliked by the men just because of their mannerisms. He didn't find it to be his fault that the other men didn't appreciate his humor and natural attitude, but it still gave him a stinging sensation to know they'd leave him hanging such as he was.

However, before he joined the group of men, he was very well-liked. People in town adored his handsome features and his once entertaining and kind personality, but his personality changed after entering the group. In this group he was with for some time now, it hardened him and he disliked it greatly but he hadn't much of a choice.

Now he was beginning to think that possibly he should not have behaved as he normally did, not if all it was going to do was isolate him like this. He at least wished that someone in the group he was in tolerated or even cared for him enough to find him, but that was hopeless; he was left out here all alone.

He swallowed a small lump that began to formulate in his throat and began to grow just the slightest bit nervous as he saw that he was completely alone.

Thankfully, though, before he had the chance to panic, he happened to shift his gaze to the ground and notice his steed's hoofprints among the mud. He began to feel relieved as he pushed himself to begin walking on the trail of the hoofprints, soon it would lead him to the group.

He even muttered a quiet "Thank the gods..." to himself as he followed the trail.

As Dragoon walked along the trail of hoofprints, he began to feel droplets hit the skin on his arm and his face on his nose, cheeks and forehead. He looked up at the grey skies then down at the puddles of water that still rested on the ground for the past couple of days as they rippled from the raindrops that fell into them.

Once again, Dragoon began to feel a slight bit nervous and began to walk faster; he knew that the rainstorms in this area could get stirred up easily and might soon wash away the hoofprints that would lead him to his team.

As more water fell, his hair began to dampen down and the water began to trickle down the sides of his long face, also getting his facial hair damp. All of the rain also urged him to start running, making sure that he kept his gaze locked onto the trail of his steed's hoofprints. He had stumbled and slipped several times but still insisted on pushing himself forward.

"No..." He muttered, as the now heavy rain began to wash away the majority of the hoofprints. He grew even more nervous than he was before. "No, no, no, no! God damn it all, no!"

One thing to know about Dragoon was, he despised being alone. There were times when he would prefer it but currently, he was alone in a storm, lost in a forest, with his crew all together elsewhere in the timberland, and his horse was also lost somewhere within.

There were so many dangers in the forest and he could have only come prepared to a certain extent. He was only prepared to capture a handicapped Night Fury with several ropes and a thick leather strap to seal its muzzle shut. Capturing such a creature wouldn't require many damaging weapons, only enough to immobilize it; besides, the beast still had some growing to do.

Though he had enough to take care of that, he wouldn't be able to do it alone unless it was a well thought out plan; he wouldn't be able to protect himself from a pack of wolves or such.

Alone and lost, Dragoon attempted to look around in the gloomy and stormy forest. His eyes began to squint to help him see better through the wind and rain and he slid in the mud once again, falling on his side. That caused him to curse then he crawled to the base of a tree that was thick and full directly above, sheltering most of its base from the rain.

He sat with his back up against the tree and exhaled shakily. He was still very nervous about being left alone in such the enviornment; he wished he could have been as brave as he had always tried to see himself as but he found that thought to be futile, he was alone and afraid.

Dragoon wiped his muddied hands on his pants then held onto the thick, red-furred pelt that was wrapped around him. He tightned it around his body and buried his face into the fur that, though it was wet, gave him a sense of warmth and comfort in this lonely time.

He shut his eyes and kept his face in the soaked fur, he was slowly falling into a shallow sleep; as if he'd be able to get proper rest under these conditions and he'd be lucky if he slept for more than a few mere minutes at a time.


	3. Chapter 3

A black mass leapt up from the waters of a lake and onto the muddy shore. The green eyes the mass possesed were filled with pride for itself as it dropped a fish on the ground, on top of a pile of fish that he had captured not too long ago.

It didn't take a genious to figure out that this was the Night Fury dragon from before. Though the dragon couldn't fly, as mentioned several times before, he discovered that he certainly could swim.

The lake he had discovered was just placed to the left of the clearing he rested in so he hadn't gone far at all. It seemed that this clearing had all he desired; water, food, comfort and he could dart underneath the slightly murky waters to hide from any major threats that could have come his way, as long as he was quiet and careful about it.

After the dark-scaled reptilian placed down his last fish, he sat by his meal and began to eat it one fish at a time. It was a wide assortment of fish; there were cod, loaches, bass, pike and salmon.

He slowly devoured each fish, chomping down on it and swallowing its filling and satisfying flesh. A humble grin was gently laid on his face as he ate the meal he gathered for himself, his tail was gently swishing from side to side.

The rain that spilled from the dark gray clouds above didn't bother the Night Fury in the least, not when he was so gladly consuming his food. Gloomy skies, wind and rain wouldn't get under the scales of this free and joyous dragon.

Unbeknownst to the creature, a man had been on the other side of the clearing. He was slowly becoming aware of the creature being nearby as well and was dragging his boots through the mud of the clearing, the grass brushing against his pant legs and he left a trail of where he walked, some grass being pressed down into the mud by his steps.

After he realized that this was what indeed him and his men were looking for, he turned back and quickly and quietly followed his footsteps back out of the clearing; he was only sent ahead by his fellow troops to inspect the area and he did a well job since he had found the Night Fury.

He slowly entered the timber again where his troops were with an eager grin on his face. The men stared over at him, brushing their hands over the sides of their steeds.

"What's with the smile, Ashton? Did you finally meet a girl?" One man to his right commented.

"Eh?" The eager grin the man held quickly faded and he shook his head, giving the other man a sharp gaze. "No! What the hell is wrong with you? I went out to investigate and I _actually_ found something that'll be worth the effort!"

"Please say it's the dragon so we can catch it and go home." Said another man as he walked from the back of the group where he once stood, approaching the man that had just returned.

"Exactly, the dragon! The Night Fury, I saw it out by a lake, somewhat past the clearing. If we act fast, maybe we can capture it." He spoke eagerly, soon asking and blinking his brown eyes. "So when do we move out?"

"I'd say as soon as possible." Said another man, climbing onto the back of his horse. "I'd hate to wait for him to migrate elsewhere."

"As if he'll be able to get far." Another chuckled as he leapt onto his stallion's back. "He still can't fly, remember?"

"And we shouldn't give him the chance to practice, either." The man that spoke before responded to the other. He lowered his brows, speaking in a firm tone "Let's not wait any longer. We move out now."

"Who died and made you leader?" Ashton frowned whilst he stroked a hand over his horse's mane after climbing onto it. "Aren't you still new to our group, Parker?"

"Dragoon isn't here anymore; he was a dreaded leader anyhow, count on my plans to be more efficient than his ever could be." Parker clenched one of his hands on his stallion's reins. "The plan will be extremely easy to understand, even for you, Ashton."

"Hey!" Ashton looked at him, offended; he didn't adore the fact that he was at the recieving end of all of the insulting jokes, especially from the newbie in the group.

"Oh, don't be so touchy." Parker rolled his pale blue eyes then continued on, "Me, Stone, uhm..." He trailed off, since he was still learning the other's names, he only gestured to men on one side of the group, "And everyone else on that side of the group, stay mounted on your steed. We'll be heading to one side of the dragon from the forest, charging towards him, hopefully it should lead him right into Ashton, Carson and the others over on the other side amongst the tall grasses and the brush, and they'll throw ropes over him to trap him and pin him down. Thereon, we keep him on a tight leash and his mouth shut firm until we return to Sanguine, understood?"

There were small murmurs among the men until they looked at him seconds later and nodded their heads to confirm that they truly understood what he described as their plan.

"Good. Now, let's move."

In the entire meanwhile, the darkly-scaled creature had filled himself with a fair amount of fish but of course, it shouldn't have been enough to have slowed him down. If he desired to stay fast he would need to eat, but never past a certain amount to where he was slowed, espescially since he couldn't fly, this would have to do.

The sound of the rain coming down against the mud and water clouded much of the other noise he could have heard, as well as the whooping winds. As mentioned before, the creature didn't mind this enviornment at all, because all of this reminded him that he was free and he wanted to savor it for all it was worth.

He rested on his stomach on the muddy ground, his paws folded beneath his head once again as they rested on the remaining fish that he had captured but hadn't yet devoured.

It was incredible that he felt as if he was far enough off from any sort of threat to stay here in this random clearing amongst these uncharted mountains and timberlands. His state of mind was completely at peace for several days now, since the day he first came to this lovely clearing, and he was so grateful for that, he'd wished his entire life as a prisoner for this freedom and he had it.

He truly _had_ it, a temporary paradise.

For the noises around him clouded his judgement on anything he might have heard. Every hoof and foot that pressed against the soppy mud was written off by the normally peaceful beast as other critters of the forest that seeked shelter from the downpour.

He couldn't exactly catch the scent of anything either; the mud that surrounded him and the fish that were just by his face blocked his sense of smell.

If he were to catch the creatures that lurked around him he would need to see them, but his eyes were closed from the rest that he desired. His back only rose and fell as he took in deep, relaxed breaths.

The poor creature was completely helpless to any impending attack, especially with his guard down such as it was.

Moving to the men in the trees, Parker held up an open palm to the men that were mounted on their steeds just behind him. His voice was a hushed whisper as his hand closed into a fist,

"Now!"

At the gesture of the hand and the quiet command, the men all at once gave their horses a sharp nudge to their flanks that urged them forward, leaping over the brush in front of them and whinnying as they stampeded towards the black-scaled creature.

Hearing the sudden cries of the horses and the now thundering hooves hit the wet earth beneath them, as well as the men that now shouted out wordless battlecries, the reptilian in the clearing snapped his eyes open and the large irises that the dragon trademarked were now thin slivers of black in the amass of green that colored the rest of his eyes. The dragon leapt to his feet within an instant and immediately dashed in the opposite direction of the threat that was now apparent to him.

One might wonder why he hadn't blasted fire at these enemies, however a dragon expert would know that a wet dragon head can't light its fire, so if the Night Fury desired to blast these enemies with fire, he would need to get to someplace dry and stay there for quite some time, all until his head would dry up.

Hearing the heavy pounding of the dragon's paws against the mud, the men that laid face-down in the tall grass stood up tall with ropes ready in their hands. The dragon's eyes grew wider than they had been and he found himself frozen from the sudden shock of all of this at once. The slits in his eyes disappeared and fell into frightened, large puppy-like irises.

In a flash, the wall of humans that leapt up from the grass just now began to throw ropes towards the creature. Some flew out around him in a failed attempt but some also got him in tight grips, on looped around most of his head, from his neck to the back of his head, another looping around his neck a bit more loosely but was quickly tightened.

At the sudden startle he recieved from the ropes suddenly about his neck, the Night Fury nervously heaved out a roar and began to flap his wings pathetically on pure dragon instinct to fly from these horrid creatures but to no avail. He was still incapable of flight, even with his adrenaline pumping as wildly as it was.

He suddenly attempted an alternative and sharply tugged his head in the opposite direction of the ropes, seeing that it was only two men holding on, he turned aside and attempted to run off elsewhere, dragging them only some of the way before another rope found itself on his neck and holding him back. Three men holding him back now.

A hopeless feeling began to build within the dragon's soul as he stopped pulling against them, there were many more of them than there was of him and his escape from his life as a prisoner was just pure luck, that luck had quickly evaporated now as he was captured again.

Thinking of going back into the tight enclosed area, the darkness, the loneliness and all of the men mistreating him and strictly only keeping him for draconic breeding with what other rare dragons such as the few Night Furies that were held captive there; he felt some fire inside of him. Not a true fire, but a fire in his heart that demanded he continued to fight, his freedom was all he had right now and he was not going to allow himself to become enveloped in that dark and lonely place again.

His head snapped towards one of the ropes around his neck and followed it to the hands of one of the men, their eyes locking before he pounced with more force than one would expect and pulled the other men forward somewhat, he hadn't quite reached the man he had locked eyes with but it was close enough.

One of his forepaws lifted itself off of the muddy ground and swiped at the man, his claws just barely missing the man as he fell back and his hands loosened their grip on the rope. With a deep snarl, the dragon's teeth bared again and now sunk through another rope around his neck and snapped it. Now it looked to the last man still holding a rope and charged for him, tackling him down hard enough to knock him on his back and knock the wind out of him, this man also releasing the rope in his hands, quickly leaping off on the other side of the man and glaring at the other men vengefully.

The horses reared and kicked their front hooves in the air in the direction of the dark-coated beast

"Bind it further! Quickly, _quickly_!" Parker's command sounded to the other men.

More men began to gather their ropes and throw them towards the creature. The first man that ended up releasing his rope before reached for one of the full length ropes still looped on the creature's neck; the dragon had suddenly made a mad dash for the trees and dashed out amongst them, the ropes still on his neck and flailing about in the wind as he ran.

"Don't let it get away!" Parker commanded.

"'_My_ plan will be more effective than Dragoon's.'" One man mocked Parker's words from earlier beneath his breath.

The dragon panted roughly as he ran about the timberlands, doing his best to not hit any trees or cause himself any damage while doing so, failing in doing so a few times along the way.

He was intent on running far from those horrid creatures again, even if it took him hours such as it did last time, he was even willing to go with years. Whatever kept him safe from these dreaded beings.

His paws pounded heavily against the sopping mud and grasses, he was running just as he was before, at full force. He continued to charge aimlessly through the trees, most possibly oblivious to the fact that his fear had him running blindly all throughout the woods.

Suddenly, in the midst of his running, he noticed a human that was pushing himself to walk through the mud and firmly planted his paws into the mud but slid for some time and stopped slipping through the mud after he collided with the same human he'd just seen and they as well slipped in the mud and was on its stomach.

Groaning, this human picked up their head and looked towards what or who had knocked them over, which was the direction they were about to look anyway because they could hear the noises that it made before then.

The oak-brown eyes, dark matted hair, red coat and long face with thin facial hair showed the clear traits of Dragoon. He had finally got up to see the commotion after some time of only resting aperiodically to himself.

The dragon that was only somewhat affected by their collision looked towards him as well and noticed his face immediately. He growled lowly at Dragoon and pushed himself to stand on his paws once again.

Quickly noticing the dark-scaled reptilian, Dragoon gaped slightly and stumbled from the slippery mud up to his feet and placed a firm hand on the base of a tree as he made sure he was also standing tall in the penetrating eyes of the black creature. It took him a moment before his mind began to register the indentity of the beast.

Recognition flickered behind the eyes of both males as their eyes remained locked. Both were very unsettled by meeting each other once again.

Complete and utter silence befell them. The rain had stopped falling not too long ago but gentle winds still stirred the trees and brush. It was a moment where neither man nor beast dared to even breathe.

Knowing that they couldn't be frozen here forever, the human male spoke up, "So we meet again... I must say, I never expected the Night Fury that escaped would be you."

His tone wasn't bitter, but instead it was flat and at the end, somewhat pointed.

The Night Fury had bared and snorted harshly at him, his back grew arched and legs bent, as if he was ready to pounce on the human at any given moment. His eyes extremely fixated on Dragoon.

"You don't look too happy to see me." The oak-brown eyes of the human gazed towards the reptilian's narrowed green ones as he made that statement. "I mean, I did put you away after all; can't imagine why you would be happy to see me."

Honestly, the creature was surprised that it remembered him, but then again, that dreaded human probably locked away many dragons for Sanguine in his lifetime. He could only guess that he was mistaken for another.

"Your eyes." Dragoon commented, a bit of what seemed to be mockery laced into his deep voice. "I know it's you by your eyes. You have that same frightened look as the day you were taken in."

The beast might have been interested in his words if he hadn't been locked away by this horrid person before. He opened his mouth and hissed at him loudly, his legs just about getting ready to deliver his pounce, but the sudden action of the hiss made Dragoon flinch back and at seeing the reptilian ready to strike, he drew a long dagger from a sheath on his outer-thigh.

"Ah!" He held the blade up in front of him, staring at the beast with the same intensity that was given to him. The blade of the dagger was held up at the level of the middle of Dragoon's chest but was pointed towards the center of the black creature's head. "Not so fast."

The viewing of the knife halted the reptilian's action yet he remained in a tense and pre-pouncing state. He was still ready to strike if the moment were to come, same goes for the human that kept the beast's intense gaze.

A low whistle began to formulate in the creature's throat as it attempted to build up a firey blast but hacked and heaved when it came to discover that his head was still somewhat wet, though not all that much, and all he was doing was releasing gas into his own body without much of a way to expel it.

Taking notice of the dragon's incapability to light its fire in its current state, Dragoon began to slowly creep in a circle around the reptilian. His oak-brown eyes fixed suddenly on the ropes that looped the dragon's neck as he circled them.

Dragoon could only figure that it was the group of his men that attempted to capture it but yet somehow managed to fail in doing so. He didn't know or could even think of anyone that could have possibly lived in the timberlands so deep and attempted to capture the beast so his men were his best guess.

If he could somehow wrestle the Night Fury long enough and managed one of the ropes around his mouth before he was completely dried, he'd be able to find his group again and they could return the dragon.

The penatrating green eyes of the dragon followed Dragoon as he walked around him but he still stayed standing still, his head the only thing moving. The glare had never lifted itself from the reptilian's face, his lips were still curled back in a snarl, teeth bared, eyes narrowed and nose scrunched up. His back was still in an arch and his wings were quite possibly the most tense part of his body even if they were only extra appendages as of right now.

Unexpectedly, the human began to slide his dagger away into its sheath again and kept an open palm, he was on the right side of the Night Fury now, but yet he kept up the slow circling around the beast.

The Night Fury was dumbstruck as the dagger was slipped away and his guard momentarily lowered since the gesture was so unexpected but he immediately arched up his back once again and gave another warning hiss in the general direction of Dragoon.

Though the dragon was tense, it might not have noticed that while Dragoon circled him, he was inching closer. Once Dragoon had gotten close enough, he leapt towards one of the two full length ropes that still hung from the dragon's neck and gripped onto it tightly.

The dragon growled sharply and began to thrash in every which way it could, flapping his pathetic wings, snapping his jaw, clawing at the mud beneath his paws, flailing his tail; anything he could to make the horrid human be discarded from his back.

Not wanting to make the same mistake he had made with his stallion, Dragoon was careful with watching the dragon's actions, making sure his wings didn't bat him or his head flew back towards him and so on.

Holding onto the other side of one of the ropes, he threw it around the muzzle of the dragon and held it just above the dragon's head roughly, making it growl out at him and lean onto its back legs, flailing its upper-body now that it held a good idea of what the human was after though the Night Fury fell onto his forepaws after some time, then the creature began to resume the flailing of his upper-body.

Exhaling sharply, Dragoon shifted his body further towards the dragon and pressed his stomach firmly against the dragon's back and kept on wrestling with the dragon as he attempted to loop the rope around the dragon's flailing head. Said rope was already looped around the dragon's flat head, though it was looped a bit sloppily, it was proving to work better than nothing and the human male began to tighten the rope, just to be sure the creature would not snap its jaws at him before its head dried.

The reptilian was becoming more and more vigorous. His head harshly wove from one side to the other which was bound to give one of the two males a headache sooner or later. The creature stood up on his rear legs again and this time, Dragoon could fell himself slip. He made sure that the rope he held was kept in one of his hands tightly as he put the other around the creature's neck and as he slipped slightly, his nails dragged down the reptilian's neck but when he almost fell off, he rapidly pulled the rope and reached up again, only to scratch down the neck of the dragon once again. The scratching made the dragon freeze.

The human male had his brows furrowed together from the dragon's sudden halt of movement. He began to think of what he had done and pondered if the dragon had been shocked by one of the two things he had done. When the dragon began to shift and prepared to flail about again, he repeated what he had done by tugging the rope and rapidly scratching along the neck and jawline of the dragon. The Night Fury's muscles tensed up all at once as the underside of its neck was scratched then relaxed as the creature fell onto its stomach, snoring afterwards.

Still feeling baffled at what had just happened, Dragoon panted and released the dragon from his hold and moved around to look at the sleeping face of the creature he had just gone against.

The black dragon's eyes were shut gently, his back was slowly rising and falling with each breath he took, snoring quietly. It was admitable that the way the creature fell over and laid was awkward in appearance; his legs both under and sprawled beside him, one wing against the ground and the other somewhat lifted, his tail in a slight curl, almost in a C-shape. The dragon was fast asleep.

Feeling confused with this discovery, Dragoon kept his brows furrowed and to make sure he wasn't being tricked, he snapped his fingers beside the ear plates of the creature several times. He recieved no consious response.

After discovering that it was possibly his biggest opprotunity yet, the human male got the same rope that he wrapped around the beast's muzzle and made a tight knot to make certain that he was incapable of snapping the ropes off, then proceeded in tying up the creature's forepaws with the other full length rope in several loops after removing it from the dragon's neck, leaving his back legs free. There practically was no use for the shorter rope so he paid it no mind and left it on the neck of the creature.

With the ropes on the dragon, it would be hard for it to run efficiently or to attack. He took one knee beside the creature and gulped softly. His oak-brown eyes were tracing the sleeping reptile.

Indeed, the two had met before; it was the first dragon that Dragoon had caught, also being after he joined Sanguine's group.

Dragoon was young at the time, he was in his mid to late teen years. He was one of those lost kids that you see on the street, dirt stuck upon tattered clothes and oily skin, messy hair that almost reached his shoulders, and often frightened yet fierce when needed to be oak-brown eyes.

He also had a name before the life he had with his group, before obtaining his 'nickname' per say; he had left that name behind, along with the child it belonged to.

It was none other than Sanguine himself that had seen him; and knowing that the child wanted shelter and most likely food, he reached out to the young Dragoon and had taken him in to raise him, but of course it was not just human compassion that drove him to do this, it was only his craving to continue poaching rare beasts, dragons being the most common and obvious cases; and such a young man wouldn't pose as much of a threat, and dragons are mostly known to attack under threat. Unless one were to regard the case of vengence, such as noted earlier with the Night Fury and Dragoon.

Most wondered why if now that Dragoon was grown, in his mid-twenties now and much more threatening in appearance, his eyes could still summon a bright gaze; even if he didn't feel joyous (which was most of the time), he was at least able to act like he was. It was a kind disposition that appealed to the playfulness of a dragon's heart. He was unable to act this way with the Night Fury, however; he fell for the gentle and light-hearted act once several years ago, it was doubtful that it'd fall for it again for dragon's have incredible memory-spans.

Besides, with what Dragoon and the beast went through just now, there was zero chance that it'd happen within either of their lifetimes.


	4. Chapter 4

"Thank you very much for the ride, ma'am. I haven't a clue on how I would have gotten that little fellow of mine back to the dragon sanctuary all on my own." The familiar deep voice of Dragoon spoke softly and kindly to a young woman that sat upon a horse-pulled cart. His statement of the sanctuary a lie, unbeknownst to the woman that drove him on the trail.

Her hazel eyes gazed over at him, a slight smile on her pink lips as she spoke to him. "No need to thank me. It's my pleasure."

Unbeknownst to Dragoon, he had actually caused the dragon to fall over only several yards from a trail that he hadn't even bothered to notice until he began to hear the hooffalls of her horses that pulled her cart. He had only looked towards them thinking his men were coming for the beast and they could return to Sanguine's pens and lock the resting dragon away again.

"So, where's this _mystic_ sanctuary?" The female asked him with gentle inquiry. "With all of my time as a tradeswoman, I don't believe I'm come across any sort of sanctuary for such beings, and _dragons_ no less."

She glanced at the bound dragon that she was hauling in the back of her cart; she knew that some of the goods in the back were certainly crushed beneath the weight of the creature but paid no mind, she could easily obtain some of them again.

Dragoon scratched his head as he slowly spoke up again, "Heh, we try to keep it a secret. Y'know, to keep it hidden from poachers, hunters, thieves..." He trailed off.

"Oh? Well, that's interesting." She stated calmly, gently pushing back her long, brown-ish gold bangs as they fell over in her face. "How is it kept hidden, sir Dragoon?"

"Ah, well. You see, there's several..." He blinked as he trailed off from what he was about to say and looked at her with a knowing gaze and smirk. "I know what you're doing."

"Mm?" She hummed curiously without looking over at him, keeping her eyes up on the trail. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Right after I said that we wanted to keep our sanctuary a secret, you asked how it was hidden. If I _were_ to tell you, you'd go look for it or send someone out to capture and obtain our dragons!" He accused her, pointing a finger at her.

She didn't make any eye contact during the exchange and ever-so casually leaned away from his index finger and grew a smirk upon her lips. She didn't miss a beat before she followed this up, "Hmph, maybe you've got me all figured out."

Dragoon blinked towards her and lowered a brow whlist raising the other, he noted the trace of sarcasm in her voice and gave his head a single shake. "Why do you want to know? About the sanctuary, I mean."

"Well, I highly doubt you'll be able to haul that dragon in the sanctuary on your own. I could pull you two in and if there are truly others, they'll help you get the poor flightless critter in the sanctuary. I mean, it was effort enough for just the _two_ of us to pull him up on the cart."

"Speaking of which, you have _some_ arms on ya, lady." Dragoon commented, looking at her arms that were much stronger than they looked.

"Thank you, it comes with the job. It requires heavy lifting." A grin formed up on the lady's lips again, "And maybe I could make regular visits to trade some goods in and out of the sanctuary. You all live there, you said? I would gladly drop by to sell or trade out several goods! Some of the others there would enjoy the items I have to offer as well."

Dragoon bit his lower lip as he thought about this, it did sound like a good deal. After all, he did manage to glance at some of the items she had in the back of the cart and they looked as if she'd come from far off just to deliver all of this, but she was still very well put together herself, despite the distances she might have traveled. She must have had high quality items with her if this was the case.

"Well, I'm not in charge." He said unevenly. "Another man is, I would need to consult with him before then."

"Ah, I see." She kept her gaze on up ahead, her posture having a tired slouch after she silently yawned. "Also, such mystic creatures like the dragon fascinate me; I'd never hurt them. Besides, that one you've got me hauling is cuter than anything I've ever seen."

"That's just because it's asleep." Dragoon commented beneath his breath.

"I don't care what you've gotta say about it, I find him to be pretty cute." She upturned her head, grinning more-so to herself then over at Dragoon, then the Night Fury.

She put the reigns of her horses in one hand and reached back with the other, one of her hands stroking over the dark scales on the creature's wing. A delicate smile rested upon her face as she affectionately rubbed the wing of the beast.

Now seeing that she had an affection for such a creature, he hadn't wished to see her nearby the sanctuary. She would surely cause trouble if she saw these creatures being mistreated in any way.

But then again, she was only one woman with a couple of horses. They'd be likely to stop her before she did anything drastic to the black market community they'd built.

"Hmph, if you say so!" Dragoon huffed lightly, putting his chin on his fist as his elbow rested on his bent knee.

The girl was now turned forward and looked along the muddy trail as her horses continued to carefully haul her, her passengers and her cart along. The horses must have hauled worse since they pulled on her cart with only some effort.

"Darlin', if you're cold, you can pick up a fur pelt or two from the back." The girl suddenly said, her eyes still firmly plastered on the trail. Dragoon blinked and lifted his head, his oak-brown eyes shifting towards her though she still didn't even glance over at him, but her kind offer was more than enough to grab his full attention. "I've seen you shivering every now and again, help yourself to a couple of timber wolf pelts in the back."

"Oh?" He glanced back and saw the fur of the wolves neatly piled up near where they sat. The gray, white, black and rusty brown fur of the wolves was exceptionally soft and fluffy-looking; these pelts must have been well kept. "Well, okay."

He shifted his arms out of his red fur pelt and set it off to his right, picking up a dark gray pelt and wrapping it around his shoulders. Dragoon's left hand held both sides of it together just beneath his neck and he leaned his right cheek onto the fur, his eyes fluttered slightly. He had already begun to feel warm in the thick and fluffy coat of the wolf.

The girl rested her elbows on her upper-legs and slowly shifted her hazel eyes towards Dragoon; she saw how his face was nuzzled to the fur and almost wanted to chuckle at the sight of such a strong-looking man to be so... adorable just by dropping his guard and snuggling the fur coat.

Dragoon released a slow and even exhale through his mouth and his breath gently fanned some of the fur. His eyes were now barely open and only opened further whenever the cart hit a bump, one of the horses whinnied, or when the girl called to the horses to speed up if they began to lag but his eyelids would fall again just after.

He hadn't remembered the last time he'd been so relaxed. He had company with him, he didn't need to worry about her much either, seeing that she was ignorant to his black market association. Also, the dragon was resting thanks to the accidental then intentional scratching of its neck. Better yet, the girl was well on the path of at least getting near the 'sanctuary' he had mentioned to her.

His mind was wandering to its content until it began to run over some details; he hadn't wanted to appear as if he was in need and only released small shivers and shudders when he thought she wasn't looking or paying attention. It wasn't possible that she felt his shivering though the seats on the cart, it was already moving on a somewhat uneven trail so she couldn't have felt the vibrations.

He also hadn't made any noise when he had done it so she couldn't have heard it, she must have caught on from the corner of her eye; but if she had seen that, what else could she have picked up on?

The male's oak-brown eyes opened up halfway and he gazed at her from behind the pelt. The relaxation he felt before was slowly evaporating as he grew more on edge, now he hoped that she didn't pick up on any of his lies. If she figured him out before they got to the 'santuary' then surely he'd never get there and she'd have the creature freed which would surely be bad on Dragoon's end.

In the meantime that he was being concerned with this, the girl was thinking to herself as well while watching where he horses walked and made sure that they were still well on the path.

She thought over how he had mentioned the area being a santuary but also how the dragon was bound on its head, neck and forepaws. It was suspicious to her and she desired to know what his explanation for it was.

After some time, she quickly gathered her courage to speak up again and asked him with such calmness and curiosity in her voice. "Pardon my asking, but why is the dragon tied?"

Now Dragoon began to feel unsettled, surely she was coming onto him or at least rising suspicions against him. His brown eyes shifted along the ground before them and he brought his eyes up to her skeptical hazel ones.

"Well..." He picked up his right hand to scratch his head as the left hand continued to hold onto the thick wolf's pelt. Dragoon was forced to think on his toes if he wanted to succeed in the mission of returning the dragon. "He was already tied and exhausted when I spotted him so he must have already been on the run, and with the ropes on his paws, he must have really struggled to do it.

"I hardly even got to interact with it before it collapsed on its side and passed out. And you already know, as I've mentioned before that our goal at the sanctuary is to protect the dragons. No matter how plentiful they may be, they need a place that's safe from hunters and poachers."

"Yes, I'm aware." She nodded briefly then furrowed her brows while continuing to gaze on down the trail. "Why didn't you remove the ropes?"

"More than likely," Dragoon began, "the dragon will be riled up once he's awoken. I'm doing this only for precautionary reasons, if he's not tied up such as he is now, who knows what he'll do once he wakes up? I mean, he did fall asleep right after escaping a chase..."

Slowly, the creature in the back of the cart shifted and caused even some items in the back to shift as well but this went unnoticed and was merely written off as the bumps and curves on the trail that were doing this to the items in the back.

"I see." The girl mumbled after some short seconds, one of her hands pushing her golden-brown hair behind her ear while gently biting down on her lower lip. "Well, that's understandable."

Dragoon could only nod in response, he was still on edge.

It seemed like everything fell silent except for the trotting of the horses' hooves. There was a newly developed tension in the air that could have easily been cut with one of the weapons that the girl kept hidden within the pluthora of other items she had in the back.

"So, uh, what'd you say your name was again?" Dragoon asked just to break the silence.

After another spot of silence, the girl allowed her hazel eyes to come into contact with his oak-brown ones and keeping them locked in a gaze before she finally spoke up. "Elaine. My name is Elaine."

Dragoon was surprised at how firmly she kept him in her stare; it was astonishing that her bright yet kind eyes held such a power to hold him still. He hadn't known anyone to give such a powerful stare and it made him feel embarrassed and ashamed, he almost wanted to shrink his head back but didn't want to show any sign of backing down, especially to a female.

What had suddenly possessed her eyes to develop such a passion? She hadn't had that flare the other times she looked at him; was it that she was catching onto him? Or was it something else?

Just as Elaine was about to break their stare, she felt a thump from the back of the cart which made both her and Dragoon stare back at what caused the noise.

The two turned to see the groggy Night Fury attempting to move around, the thud that they had heard was his tail hitting the cart after he rolled onto his opposite side.

Dragoon gulped and had to ready himself to get up and fight against the creature to put him to sleep once again. Especially if it were to become violent against him or caused any trouble with any of the lies he told to Elaine.

The eyes of the creature slowly opened and he almost yawned but the rope prevented him from doing so. This also succeeded in making his eyes widen, his gaze seeing the rope blurred on his head from behing so close and he jerked his head back and attempted to leap back but his rear end hit the wall of the cart and he stumbled over his front paws that were still bound up tightly.

His breathing grew quick and heavy with an animalistic nervousness, his gaze shifting around in a panic until they fell on Dragoon. He growled deeply in his throat and attempted to get ready to pounce but only fell forward on his face because of the binds on his forepaws.

With her brows raising in concern for the creature and her cargo, Elaine tied the reigns to a hook on the front of the cart and turned to the dragon that was still bound and afraid in the back.

His green eyes rose up to meet her hazel ones and widened somewhat, afraid of what this new and unfamiliar human might do to him. He didn't know what he could have done in this small space with all of these binds on him.

"Hey there, big fella." She leaned over and put out her hand above his head, allowing him to look at it. She was hoping for him to calm down and hopefully grow to trust her enough to nuzzle her hand or at least get closer to it. "I won't hurt you."

She was going about this the same way she would with any other animal such as a dog or horse, she was just using it on this dragon.

The Night Fury looked at her hand and listened to her calming voice then his eyes came into contact with hers again; her eyes were so gentle and reassuring, but this was an all too familiar scenario. He felt as if he was experiencing deja vu because this scene echoed in the back of his mind along with the memory of that wretched human Dragoon capturing his younger self.

He flinched his head back with a harsh snort and shook his head, hitting it a few times against the sides of the cart. Just before Elaine put her hand out for something, Dragoon put a hand up and urged Elaine backwards and she furrowed her brows at him.

"Um, pardon?"

"I know how to calm him down."

"Oh?" She moved past his arm and reached into a bag she had set off to the side. She was shifting through it and gathering some things from it. "Enlighten me."

"Okay, okay." He shifted towards the Night Fury but at seeing him approach, the dragon shook his head more aggressively and huffed harshly. He trashed his tail and back legs around which wrecked and made a mess of Elaine's surplus.

"Dragoon! Back off, you're probably scaring him." Elaine scolded him with her eyes harsh upon the human male. This made Dragoon look back at her and frown deeply, he was cleary growing more agitated with everything going on and her giving him a command wasn't helping; but Elaine had paid that no mind and held a handful of dried fish.

The ear plates on the Night Fury's head stood up with some interest in the fish, his nostrils twitched as he sniffed the air to catch more of the scent. He would have even shifted forward if Dragoon wasn't so close to her.

Elaine carefully leaned towards him, fish in hand and held it out in one hand; she wanted to make sure he was comfortable with this before she did anything else.

The dragon sniffed it and his mouth began to water, he craved to devour the morsels but the rope prevented him from doing so; he began to whine from being unable to eat the fish.

"Easy now, I'll be taking off the rope." She spoke with a gentle tone that easily perked up the dragon.

"Wait, what?" Dragoon questioned but he had gone without being acknowledged.

Her free hand came forward and began to pull the rope off of his muzzle, making sure that it came off slowly and didn't give him a shock. It took only a few short seconds before it was pulled off completely and fell on the items below.

The dragon was grateful for this and quickly lapped his tongue over her hand, he greedily devoured all of the dried fish in her hand and licked his lips. His tongue had left behind a generous amount of saliva on Elaine's hand but she paid little attention to this and merely wiped it off on her pant leg.

Dragoon shifted his gaze between the two and grabbed Elaine by the shoulder, pulling her back to which both she and the Night Fury responded with a sharp gaze. Dragoon didn't want her to get emotionally attached to this creature.

"I beg your pardon?" She knitted her brows together with some annoyance at that sudden contact.

"I... I was just concerned! He could have bit you and blasted you. He is still afraid, after all." Dragoon defended pathetically.

There was a short pause before Elaine spoke up again with that same tone in her voice, "Okay."

The black creature in the cart growled again and snorted harshly once his green eyes met Dragoon's brown ones, a feeling of rage was bubbling deep inside of him. A low whistle began to sound from the back of the dragon's throat.

The sound made the girl's eyes widen somewhat from surprise and curiosity. She hadn't known what that noise meant but the dark look in the beast's eyes gave her the indication that it wasn't going to be good.

Quickly, Dragoon leapt in the back of the cart and tightly wrapped his arms around the muzzle of the dragon; he made sure that the beast couldn't open its mouth. This had done nothing to console the creature and made it even more agitated, his wings and tail were twitching and spazzing about wildly along with his tail and his back claws scratched at what was beneath them. The whistle in the dragon's throat quickly died and the dragon began to grunt and groan with effort to get the human male off of him.

Elaine just knew that a majority of her products were broken and/or torn about now with all of the trashing around, but she hadn't a clue on what to do about the massive reptilian and her passenger that were now tusseling in the back of her cart amongst her cargo. She was surprised that her cart hadn't been broken down.

"Elaine! E-Elaine, scratch his neck!" Dragoon called to her while making sure that the beast's mouth was kept shut in his tight hold. "It'll put 'im to sleep!" Even if the scratching didn't put the dragon to sleep, it'd at least subdue it into a calmer state.

The woman leapt into the back of the cart with caution so that she didn't get thrashed by any of the dragon's flailing muscles, she had ducked once to avoid a blow from his wing and crept to his side and scratched along the side of the Night Fury's neck. It hadn't put the beast to sleep but he instead purred and leaned into her hand, no longer flailing as he was doing only literally seconds before.

Dragoon panted from the struggle and slowly loosened his hold on the creature as he stumbled back to the front of the cart and sat down with his hands coming up to rest on his face. He was quickly losing interest and motivation in not wanting the two to bond, and it had only been several minutes; besides, they would be split up eventually one way or the other after they reached the 'sanctuary'.

Elaine only smiled as she continued to pet and scratch the reptile's neck, the dragon also grew a grin on his face and his ears flattened back in a puppy-like manner. How he enjoyed the playful affection that the girl was giving him, somehow he was growing the capability to feel that her affection was more genuine than that he had experienced those years ago as a young newly hatched dragon with Dragoon; this had given the creature a sense of safety. Even though it had seemed that she'd been working with him, she was still free-willed in her own way and in that way, she was genuine with her emotions much unlike the goon she assisted.

"Aww." She almost cooed at the dragon's endearingness. The green orbs of the winged beast looked towards her soft hazel ones once she began to speak up. "You aren't so bad! You're just an adorable reptile that's ten times my size!"

With a light huff, the creature butted his nose against her head. He was aware of his playfulness and also made sure that he hadn't let his guard down, his ears were perked up again and listening for any sign of Dragoon coming near and even glanced at him occasionally; but she was still enough to give him a sense of safety from that wretched human male that sat in the front of her cart.

Dragoon was rolling his eyes and shaking his head at the two, he pulled the wolf pelt around his shoulders again and looked ahead of the cart only to see the horses were moving at a painfully slow trot, he turned to look over his shoulder and pointed ahead to the animals pulling the cart.

"Elaine? The horses are slowing down." He pointed out to her; it was likely that she didn't notice this at all since she was so content on playing with the over-grown reptile in the back of her cart.

She had her hands running along the scales of the dragon's jaw, neck and top of his head. It took a few seconds before she processed that Dragoon was talking to her and blinked, then she began to crawl back to the front of the cart.

The black-scaled reptilian stared as she moved away from him then gave a sharp gaze to Dragoon, who was still looking over his shoulder but now at the creature with lowered brows, then he looked back to the front of the cart with a slight huff. The reptile did just the same except his head turned off to the side, he hadn't wanted to leave even the slightest bit of safety that the human female provided him with, this obviously was causing him to stay.

Dragoon was honestly having regrets about telling Elaine so much about the creature, even the lies; he had told her about its lack of flight, why it was chased, why it was bound, how scared it must have been; because he was now getting the feeling that she was purposely bonding with the reptile because she both pitied it and wanted to protect it. Surely, this made Dragoon have so many second thoughts; why couldn't he have just gotten a ride from someone that wasn't so questioning or interested with these mystic reptiles?

Elaine had only took several seconds in the front of the cart to get the horses moving quickly again before once again, tying the rope around the hook on the front of the cart then leaping into the back with the dragon again.

The Night Fury flinched from the sudden movements she made but with the quick recognition of her hazel eyes, his eyes brightened up and his snout nuzzled her head.

Dragoon had to do a double-take as he looked back at her eagerness to playing and intereacting with the dragon. He let his head fall into one of his open palms as he slowly shook his head from side to side.

The dragon, however, was simply glad that someone was actually giving him the time of day to interact with him in ways that weren't threatening or bothersome. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been around someone so genuine and kind.

Perhaps he was quick to trust her, but at this point, it didn't matter to him. He was only glad to have her around instead of just being stuck with that dreaded human.

The girl's hands rubbed from the top of the dragon's head to the ear plates on the back of his head, her hands rubbing the plates that were surprisingly soft on the underside as she kept a light and sweet smile on her face.

While she continued to play with the reptile's ear plates, she giggled then looked at the back of Dragoon's head. "Pardon, but how long do you think it'll take to get to your sanctuary?"

"Hopefully not long." He grumbled to himself then glanced back at her. "If I had to guess at this pace, I'd say around a few days. Maybe two or three."

That was going to be his best guess on how much time it'd take to get back there, seeing that it took around the same amount of time to get out to the spot to where he saw the dragon.

All three of them had their own consious thought at the mention of the amount of time. Elaine thought of how much more she could discover about dragons with such a big and lovable creature around, she'd be able to learn so much and tell the stories of what she learned when she passed through towns and villages. Surely she'd gain a lot by knowing more about these reptilian creatures.

The dragon, as mentioned before, felt comfort with this human female. He had a sense of security and perhaps he'd be able to appeal to the girl so much that she'd take him in. It was highly unlikely seeing that she was a traveler and all, but she did adore him so hopefully for him, that'd be his slightest slimmer of hope.

As for Dragoon, let's just say this was going to be long ride.


	5. Chapter 5

Dragoon laid on his back on the seats in the front of the cart, his eyes were half-open and looking up at the darkening twilit sky. He hadn't a clue on how he was managing to put up with the girl and the creature tusseling around in the back of the cart but he was pulling through.

He had one arm behind his head and the other on his stomach, he also had his clean wolf pelt that he received from Elaine earlier resting on his torso under his arm. One of his legs was up at an angle and the other leg was resting on the knee of the bent leg. A quiet sigh escaped his lips for what seemed to him to be the millionth time.

Elaine had her hands gently toying with the dragon's plates on the sides of his head and nuzzling her nose against his with a sweet smile. He huffed gently against her face then manuvered his head around her shoulder to grab her hair in his gums and begin to lightly shake his head while still holding onto her hair.

"Ow!" She laughed at first, attempting to pull her head from him but only succeeding in tugging her hair even more. She winced this time but still kept a light yet forced smile as to not dishearten the giant reptilian but still whined out, "Owwwie!"

This was the first time Dragoon had heard her complain or whine so he just barely turned his head to look at her, seeing her hair being pulled by the dragon. The dragon was sitting on his back legs with his head over Elaine's and playfully pulled at it, though Elaine still found it to be quite a bit painful. One of her eyes were shut as she tried to pull from his grip again.

At first, Dragoon was unsure whether to laugh or give her advice on how to get it to let go. He unintentionally went for the first option and chuckled just below his breath; that was rather unexpected of him. What he was witnessing certainly was different.

Finally, after a little more struggling she was able to release her hair from the mouth of the winged reptile. She blinked at first, surprised that she had gotten free from his grip. Her hair stood up in a sloppy mess from the dragon's saliva; and soon enough, Elaine recieved a small chill she got after feeling the cool wind blow across her saliva-doused head. This caused her to make a bit of a face as she felt the thick and slimy dragon spit roll down her face.

"Eww!" She groaned out overdramatically and swiped a hand through her spit-drenched hair. She flicked it off to the side and pouted up at the creature, who let out a low draconic laugh.

The human male, whom was still watching them, chuckled again; his laugh a bit more audible this time around. Whatever he found so amusing about this, he wasn't exactly sure, but it appealed to his humor and allowed him to actually laugh for the first time in he wasn't exactly sure how long.

"Ugh, that's gross..." Elaine groaned again, but now found herself smiling; though it was in fact disgusting to be doused in the dragon's saliva, she was having more than enough fun, more than she could remember having in some time now.

The golden-haired female stared up at the dragon from the corner of her eye and saw his little mischevious smile still on his face. She shook her head with a laugh then pat his head before crawling to the front of the cart again; she did this only to see Dragoon smirking at her, gently bouncing the foot on his knee in a rhythmic manner.

With one of her eyebrows quirked and a lopsided smile on her face, Elaine spoke up, "Why d'you look so bright suddenly?"

He shrugged his shoulders and kept his smirk, "I just find you to look kind of funny with your hair..." He trailed off then moved his hand from the back of his head just so he could run that same hand through her spit-soaked hair, his smirk slightly widening; she truly did look almost hilarious with such sloppy and stuck out hair. "Like this."

She shut her eyes and shook her head, the smile still on her face. However, her face was slightly warm because of how he had ran a hand through her hair with such a slow and gentle touch; she never recalled feeling a touch like that before. "You really think it looks that funny, huh?"

"Yup!" He brought his hand back then flicked the dragon spit off of it. He looked at his hand, it had a strange, slimy and almost oily feel to it now. He mumbled out a small, "Ew... gross."

Elaine pulled herself to her seat and chuckled at his low mumbling, a smirk was now on her face. She hadn't been expecting him to be so easily grossed out by dragon saliva, almost like she had been. "Yeah, try having your hair soaked in _that_."

He shook his head and put his hand back behind his head. He tilted his head back to look at her, blinking slightly but his smirk still stayed in place. "Nah, I think I'm good. Just a thin layer of second-hand dragon spit on my hand is good enough for me."

It was now Elaine's turn to shake her head as she held the horses' reigns in her hands, giving the horses another small push to keep going along the trail. She lifted her gaze up to the darkening twilit sky that Dragoon had his eyes on not too long ago and began to pull the horses off to the side of the trail.

Dragoon lifted his head, propped himself up onto an elbow and blinked up at her. He now slowly turned slightly onto his side but it wasn't enough to cause the wolf pelt to fall off of him, and Dragoon put his chin on his hand, his brown eyes looking up at her.

"Mm? What'cha doing?" He looked ahead to see her going off of the trail, one of his hands now scratching his head through his thick fluffy hair.

"Nightfall's approaching, I just figured that we could pull off into the woods a bit for an overnight rest, or at least until daybreak." She explained simply, a hand on her lap as she held the reigns in the others; her gaze watching where her horses headed.

"Ah, that makes sense." Dragoon nodded and laid fully on his side, keeping the pelt around him. He felt so attached to the soft and fluffy pelt; it was just so warm and comfortable.

The black dragon in the back of the cart watched as the two humans interacted with a green-eyed gaze of envy. He felt jealous that his new friend was talking to his old foe, though the two humans appeared to be somewhat friendly, he found himself with the urge to grab Elaine in his gums and pull her back with him and keep her from Dragoon, whom he still did not trust.

Soon enough, the cart came to a stop and Elaine hopped off not a second later. She pet over the smooth coats of the horses for a moment and gave them both some veggies that she had just happened to carry out of the cart with her. Her horses ate the food the food they were offered and gently stomped their forelegs to shift their weight around.

The dragon had his head lifted over the side of the cart and gazed at the girl as she walked about the trees nearby with her horses and flattened his ears. He wanted out of the cart now and out of the binds on his forepaws; he had honestly forgot about those until recently when the fun he was having with Elaine died down.

Elaine walked by him again and patted behind the dragon's ear plates, a soft smile on her face. He began to smile at her in return and began to lean into her touch.

Dragoon had slowly climbed off of the cart and stretched out his arms and back by twisting and leaning in several different angles. His back popped loudly and a groan escaped him afterwards then he slouched forward somewhat.

It took him a bit before he shifted his brown-eyed gaze into the direction of Elaine and the dragon. He had his arms now hanging loosely at his sides, he took a slow inhale then exhaled softly. He just stood, side-eyeing the two for a moment then turned his back to them and shook his head. He walked to a tree that was near the trail they had just gotten off of and placed one of his shoulders against it, the soft wolf pelt was hanging off of his other shoulder.

Elaine kept her smile as her hands continued to pet over the dragon's neck, plates and head. One would figure that her hands would be rubbed raw by the creature's rough scales by now but somehow that hadn't been the case, even if it had, it wouldn't have bothered her much, seeing that she's probably handled worse.

Her hazel eyes left the dragon's endearing face, now she looked at the tight bounds on his forepaws that must have been fairly uncomfortable, especially after all that time. She removed her hands from his head and this made him perk up his ear plates curiously. He managed to see where she was looking then followed her gaze to his forepaws; upon seeing this, he shifted his forepaws uncomfortably then looked back up towards her with eyes that pleaded for the ropes to be removed, releasing a low groan of discomfort.

She looked towards his large, pleading green eyes and frowned slightly. Not knowing whether or not she should, she needed to interact with his consious somehow.

"Hey, fella..." She began, his ears perked up again at hearing her voice. "You won't run off if I take off the ropes, will you?"

That was highly unlikely, seeing that he found a strange sense of comfort around her but yet he didn't know how he'd be able to inform her of that. After all, he was a creature that was incapable of speaking in any manner, so he flattened his ear plates against his head again and whined.

She began to witness the struggle he was going through with wanting to humanly interact with her but not being able to. So after a bit of thought, she gently grabbed his head in her hands and began to speak up once again.

"Are you a black scaled dragon?" She asked what appeared to be randomly and nodded his head to answer her question, speaking again to reveal the answer. "Yes."

The Night Fury knitted the scales over his eyes together, feeling confused at her random question and her movements to nod his head up and down. He was completely oblivious to what she was trying to do but it interested him no less. He had even gazed down at his scales to find that they were indeed black. He frowned awkwardly as he stared up at her again.

She knew that he was going to struggle a bit at first but after some time with him she knew he would begin to understand. It shouldn't take too long, after all, she had heard that dragons were very intelligent.

"Did you soak my hair with your spit?" She asked him again, he stared at her blankly until she nodded his head for him. She spoke quietly and no differently than as if she was speaking to a normal person, "Yes, you did."

He watched her face carefully, he wanted to pick up on whatever she was saying. She moved his head as she answered her own questions which was odd, but it had his attention and he attempted to pick up on the gesture she was teaching him.

"Did I give you fish earlier?" She asked him, her brows were raised slightly as she asked this. She was going to give him several seconds to respond before she showed him the gesture again.

That was not needed, however; for he stared at her for a second then slowly moved his head up and down in response, nodding to her. He had hoped that what he had done was right by giving her that head gesture that was supposedly a 'yes'.

A bright smile spread across her face and she beamed at the dragon with glee, she was astonished with how quickly he picked up on the nodding.

"Yes! Yes, that's very good!" She pat his head gently and briefly nuzzled her head against his snout. He wiggled his nose from the tickling of her hair but regardless, he purred at her quietly. "You're doing great!"

She now pulled away, much to the dragon's disappointment, but she had to teach him how to respond with a 'no'. She pondered on what to say for a moment then opened her mouth to begin speaking to him.

"Okay, now... is the sun out?" She asked him gently. "Is it bright outside?"

She released his head to let him look around; he looked towards the sky and found it mostly dark, little light was provided by the stars and cresent moon in the sky. It definitely wasn't bright out but he hadn't known how to respond. He shifted his gaze down to her again and flattened his ears.

She gently put her hands on his head and shook his head gently from one side to the other. "No, the sun isn't out; and it is not bright outside."

He figured that this was just like before, but it was going to be 'no's instead of 'yes's. This was actually rather simple, he was surprised that he hadn't picked up on this earlier.

"So, is there a dragon on this cart besides you?" She asked, quirking up a brow with curiosity. It was meant to be a playful yet serious question.

After a moment of thought, the dragon shook his head now wondering if what he had done was correct once again. He was just wanting to be careful and make sure that he was getting these head gestures right.

"Excellent!" She smiled at him brightly, this made him smile back at her. She nuzzled her face against his snout again and felt him nuzzle her back. "You've done well!"

His tail swayed from side to side, almost similar to how a dog wags their tail. All the dragon had to do now was remember those head gestures whenever he was required to answer a question.

After a moment, Elaine pulled her head from the Night Fury's and now gazed at him more seriously and locked their eyes together, her hazel eyes with his green ones. His smile faded as he stared into her eyes, his tail stopped swaying as well.

"Okay, so I'm going to ask you again... are you going to run if I take off the ropes?" She asked softly but her eyes were still locked firmly with his.

After some collection of the creature's thoughts, he shook his head to answer her question and hoped he'd answered correctly.

"Alright." She said after a bit of time then reached down to the ropes and let her fingers run along the ropes until she found the knot. After she'd found it, she began to try to work out the knot but it was simply too tight for her to untie. "Damn... it's tight."

She sighed after some time of struggling with the ropes, she shook her head and put her hands on the side of the cart. She looked towards the large puppy eyes of the Night Fury again that were desperately pleading to be out of the dreaded binds of the rope.

"Well, I think I have something that I can use to get it off but you need to promise that you won't be afraid." She spoke to him softly yet firmly, she needed him to know that she was there for him and to help him. "Do you promise?"

After some thought, he flattened his ears as he tried to remember the head gestured she'd just taught him and began to shake his head but after coming to the quick realization of what the nod indicated, he nodded his head quickly as if to cover up his mistake.

"Okay then, buddy." She climbed into the back of the cart again and dug beneath some of her items before she picked up a hunter's knife from beneath a bunch of other items amongst her broken and strewed about cargo. "Just stay still and be calm."

He shifted around to see what she was doing and spotted the blade that she held in her hand. His animalistic fear returned and he forgot about the promise he had made, his eyes narrowed and he leapt back from her, hitting his side against the cart with a loud and audible thud, he emitted a loud snarl at the blade.

"No, please settle down!" She put an open hand out to him, the hand that held the blade was held away from him. He snapped his jaws at her hand, and if she hadn't pulled her back when she did, she might have lost her hand. "I-I'm trying to help you!"

He snorted harshly at her, backing away with his back arched up and teeth bared. He was snarling defensively as his eyes stayed locked with her now widened ones.

She had to give both of them some time before she made her gaze more firm and reached her free hand out to him more slowly and carefully.

"Please, calm down. I'm going to release you." She inched forward towards him and soon her hand was only an inch or two from his snout. His eyes were still narrowed and he was still on edge. "It's to help you... I'm not going to hurt you."

He exhaled sharply and let his weak wings droop down slightly. His eyes softened but not much.

She kept her gaze on him but the firmness began to fade, a bit of concern for the creature returning to her eyes. She moved the knife closer to him which made his wings tense again and low growl came from the dragon, she gulped at hearing the growl and kept her one hand near his snout before slowly placing it on his nose and gently stroking it.

His breathing lightened up somewhat and his growls quieted; it was beginning to come back to him, his animalistic fear caused him to forget momentarily that this was his new friend, the one he was going to trust with keeping him safe.

His narrowed eyes began to soften up and he took in deep breaths that began to help him calm down. She exhaled quietly with relief and moved the blade to his forepaws, the blade was manuvered to the ropes and began to cut into the ropes; it was difficult to do but after some time, she managed to cut completely through the ropes and let them fall.

The Night Fury gazed down at his paws then slowly stretched them out in front of him. A low groan emitted from him and he grinned brightly, giving Elaine a sweet and grateful lick over her face, coating her face with his saliva.

"Eugh..." She groaned, her hands wiping over her eyes and a string of spit was connected to her hands and her face as it dripped from her chin. She flicked her hands to break the spit and shook her head with a small shudder. "Gross..."

The dragon once again laughed at her disgust with his saliva; he leapt out of the cart and stretched out his twitching wings, tail, and back. He was joyous to be free from the binds all together.

The Night Fury panted much like a dog would; his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and his tail swayed from side to side. He ran in large circles around the trees but stayed close enough so his large body could still be seen in the weak evening moonlight.

Dragoon on the other hand was nearby; his brown eyes were wide at what he had just seen unfold before him. It was almost unreal at how she had controlled him within mere seconds and she had... those eyes of hers. Those eyes were incredible if they could even rationalize a creature such as a dragon and a grown one, no less.

The control she held over him with a few simple gestures and words, the power that this girl held; how was it even real? She seemed to be so amazed with these mystic draconian creatures, yet she seemed so mystical herself but truly, there was nothing; she was just a normal human girl.

But still, why was she so... compelling?

Dragoon had to shake his head before he dug too deep into it. He ran a hand up through his thick dark hair and stared down at the ground, he brought his gaze back up to see Elaine arranging things in her cart once again. She was discarding what was beyond repair and setting aside the things she could repair sometime later and put things that were unscathed aside (that of which, it would have seemed there was not much of).

He furrowed his brows and gazed out again, there wasn't much else going on other than the black dragon that insisted on its freedom and continued to bound and leap through the trees, nearly bumping into Elaine's horses several times.

Finally, with a low sigh, he came towards Elaine's cart and stared inside at the items that were carefully seperated from each other. She was too busy with her work to notice him and folded up several unscathed pelts then put them off to the side.

"Hey." The brown-eyed male finally spoke up, this made her take notice of his prescence and she glanced up at him briefly before returning to her cargo.

"Hello." She spoke, "Haven't seen you in a while." That was an obvious joke.

He forced up a little smile then looked at the broken items set aside. "So... we really did some damage to those things, huh?"

"Yeah, but in my honest opinion, that's a small price to pay for the safety of the dragon." She smiled lightly and picked up a winch that was broken beyond repair and tossed it aside. "There's my future spare parts."

Dragoon stared at her, having a conflicted feeling in his chest then opened his mouth to speak, he'd intended on asking if she needed help but what came out instead was, "Do you want me to set up a fire?"

Well... that'd count as helping somehow, right?

She shrugged, not exactly paying much mind to this. "Maybe if you want. I'm not going to force you to do anything. If you do, try not to make it too big. I don't want anyone to track us."

Dragoon blinked and slowly nodded his head. "Will do." He was about to take his hand off of the cart but heard a short whistle, followed by a quiet whoosh. He saw flickering out of the corner of his eye and spotted the Night Fury by a tiny pile of thin and unimpressive twigs that were just barely aflame. It was clear that the dragon was careful but he was too careful, it would seem.

Elaine didn't seem to respond to the noises and continued on with what she was doing. Dragoon, however, walked towards the nearby fire that the dragon sat by; the creature was patiently waiting for Elaine. He frowned and flattened his ear plates as he saw Dragoon approach.

Quickly, the Night Fury shifted around and blocked Dragoon from reaching the fire; as Dragoon attempted to walk around him, the dragon shifted again.

Folding his arms with annoyance, the human male spoke to the dragon, "The fire doesn't need to be that small. I think it can be a little bigger."

The dragon huffed and put his large yet weak wings out to make a wall and block him from the fire. He wasn't about to let his enemy near the fire that he built for Elaine.

"Hey!" Dragoon shouted out; he frowned down at the creature that glared up at him. "I want to help build up the fire just a little bit. That fire should be going out in a few minutes at the very least."

There was a frown on the dragon's face and his ears remained flat against his head. He was reluctant to have his enemy help; he growled again then turned his head away sharply. He suddenly stood up towards Dragoon and snorted sharply, then he leapt away and towards Elaine's cart.

With a slight roll of his eyes, Dragoon sighed and began to pull together longer-lasting and longer sticks that'd assist the fire in growing and staying alive. Some of the wood hissed since its wood was still wet from the rain the days before.

The Night Fury on the other hand had his head resting on the side of Elaine's cart. He was pouting and snorting to himself in a childish manner. His ears were drooped on either side of his head and his wings were drooped to the ground and his body was in a slouched posture.

She slowly shifted her gaze up to the dragon's pouting face then spotted his childish look. A light smile came to her face and she put down a pair of boots that she'd been inspecting, one of her hands came up to his jaw and gently rubbed along from his jaw to the top of his head.

"Oh, now now, is something the matter?" Her tone was soft and sweet, the dark-scaled dragon continued to pout at her and after considering the head gestures again, he nodded. "Mm? What's the problem?"

With the same pout, he turned his head away to look in the general direction of Dragoon. Elaine looked at him and examined his face for a moment then began to follow his gaze towards the man that placed down one last piece of wood before he sat himself down next to the fire, the wolf pelt tight around his strong shoulders.

Elaine looked from Dragoon to the Night Fury and chuckled lightly, "I'm sorry, buddy but it looks like he's minding his own business." She rose a brow up and kept a light smile on her face. One of her hands gently pet the dragon's ear plates. "Anyway, I bet you're hungry, huh?"

The pout that the beast held immediately evaporated and his ears perked up. He considered the gestures and almost shook his head but managed to nod before that happened. How glad he was that he could communicate with her now, even if it was just a small thing.

"Okay." Elaine kept a sweet smile and looked off to the side and picked up a satchel; she dove a hand into the satchel and unlike before, when she only pulled out several thin slivers of fish, instead she'd pulled out a full slab of some sort of meat that was also tied up in paper. She began to remove the paper and exposed a steak of yak meat to the dragon. "I've had this smoked yak meat for about a day. I'm pretty sure it's safe to eat, especially for a dragon."

His irises grew and he stared at the yak meat, he leaned his head towards the steak and inhaled the scent. He opened his mouth to expose his gums and to grab the edge of the large steak in his mouth.

"Wait a minute, hold on..." She trailed off, the dragon stopping on command then allowed Elaine to look at his mouth again, she saw only his gums. She quirked a brow at seeing his gums but also saw the holes in his gums where his teeth should have been. She could have sworn that just about every time he opened his mouth that he had exposed his sharp teeth. Something didn't quite feel right.

The dragon shifted impatiently and he craved to just sink his hidden teeth into the meat before him, he soon did exactly that after feeling as if he'd been waiting long enough. His teeth bolted out from his gums and bit down into the steak, he sat back and began to chew and chomp on the smoked yak meat.

With a light yelp of surprise, Elaine leaned away from the sharp teeth of the winged reptile. Her eyes were wide with surprise but she was no less impressed by the unique trait of the dragon.

"Wow..." She gasped quietly, swallowing with a slight sense of nervousness. It took her only a few seconds before she fully formulated her first thought and said it aloud, "That... is... amazing!"

The dragon blinked at her ecstatic statement and tilted his head after he swallowed the yak meat. Dragoon, though he was off next to the fire, shifted his gaze over to her and the dragon and watched them.

The Night Fury made a gentle grunt of curiosity; he hadn't known what exactly she was referring to that she viewed as 'amazing'.

She gestured to his mouth and blinked with awe. Her eyes were bright with a childlike gleam that further proved how impressed she was by the unique reptilian trait. "Your teeth! They hide in your gums and when you need them, they jut out! It's incredible!"

Dragoon almost smiled at her ignorance to dragons; though she adored them, she had a lot to learn about these wonderous creatures. He shut his eyes and turned his face towards the flickering fire in front of him.

The Night Fury did in fact smile at her and exposed his gums to her once again, his tail beginning to joyously sway. He licked his lips and stepped away from the cart, and he made a gesture for her to get off of the cart and go with him to the fire, seeing that he didn't want to be there alone with Dragoon.

She smiled a little and looked at her items again. They were sorted for the most part but she'd be able to sort them later in the evening, after all, they still just barely stopped and she did require some rest, even for a moment.

"Okay, darling. You just go to the fire and I'll be there in a moment." She stood up in the back of the cart and began to dust off her knees, the dragon began to walk off to the fire reluctantly and sat on the other side of the flame, keeping distance from Dragoon.

Elaine on the other hand, was taking a bit of time on her cart. She walked to a crate that she had resting in the corner of the cart and took the top off of the crate; she reached in and pulled out some fruits and vegatables and put them into her arms. She soon after used her free hand to put the lid back on the crate then leapt down. She made her way towards the fire and gently tapped Dragoon's side with her boot.

He stared up at her with a raised brow and a tired hum, "Mm? What is it?" He asked before he saw that she was holding out food to him with one of her arms. She had transferred food for him into one arm and kept her own in the other, he looked at her then asked, "For me?"

She nodded with a smile and gestured to the food, "Yeah, I just thought you'd be hungry so I got ya something. I know it isn't much but still..."

"Well, thanks." He grabbed the food from her arm, which was an apple, a potato, and a quarter of a cabbage. He placed it on his lap then slowly began to eat and savor the food he had recieved from Elaine.

She sat down next to the dragon and began to eat at her own food, which was consisted of the same meal items that she had given Dragoon just now. She leaned one of her shoulders against the dragon's side as she ate, the creature only laid calmly and tiredly.

After all he'd gone through today, and though he'd already rested, he was still rather tired. He exhaled slowly and let his wings fall to his side, one of his wings fell over the front of Elaine and treated her as if it were a rough and scaly blanket.

Elaine only smiled at this and cuddled against the dragon, patiently eating at her own food. It was comforting to be so close to the creature as well as endearing. She could have cuddled this dragon until the end of her days.

Dragoon was staring at the fire and thinking to himself as he ate incredibly slowly. His mind was far too occupied by other thoughts to focus entirely on eating. Aside from chewing on his food, his teeth were serving to gently biting down on his lower lip as he continued his thoughts.

It was nice to have these luxuries that Elaine provided him with; she provided him with a good laugh or at least a smile before then he'd only had his own thoughts to entertain himself, but he knew that he'd be seperated from her soon and he'd not see her again until when and if she came down the route of the dragon 'sanctuary'. So there'd go someone that appealed to his humor.

Also, why haven't the men he was travelling with before came to gather the dragon from her? Surely they'd have caught up by now since her horses travelled at a leisurely stroll while more than likely, the men's horses moved at a full gallop for the most part. It wouldn't have been likely that they haven't been able to track her unless there was a sudden cut back in their plans.

He was confused, yet oddly concerned. He hadn't expected himself to care for anyone so quickly, not after those years ago when he'd first met Sanguine. It was unexpected and unwelcome, he felt fine while he was on his own and now that there was a little speck of warmth in his chest that came far too quickly for his liking.

The warmth was quickly counteracted by coldness and frustration that he forced himself to have and subconsiously shook his head. He had to convince himself to dislike everything about his situation and everything around him, his face now contained a deep frown.

He looked down at the remaining bit of cabbage and half of potato he had and kept it on his lap, he rubbed his arm. He was growing uncomortable again in his enviornment, and emotion-wise, he found it to be helpful because if he was comfortable and at ease, he'd know that he'd be letting his guard down and be open to everything around him, including his emotions.

The pelt on his shoulder began to slide off and it took him a bit to process this before he quickly grabbed it before it fell to the ground below and held it close to himself. It didn't seem like it was very important and he almost looked childish with how he had such a concern for the pelt. He just adored the softness and warmth it gave him, though he didn't want to let his guard down, with the pelt it felt as if it didn't matter.

Elaine was smiling at him again; easily being reminded of a child with a toy or blanket as she witnessed Dragoon with the pelt. A small giggle slipped past her lips, this made him blink at her.

"What's so funny?" He mumbled against the soft fur, frowning somewhat just to keep himself convinced that he wasn't letting her in.

Her smile fell a little, hearing the frown in his voice before she responded to him. "You just looked sort of cute. The way you were bundled with the wolf pelt, I mean. I just found it cute." She found herself to be internally nervous while saying this but kept a mellow appearance. "That's all."

The man exhaled slowly and scratched his head slightly above his neck. His head was now turned aside and he did not verbally respond to her, his legs were bent up in front of him and the food was still in his lap. He simply had it kept there in case he felt the need to eat or pick at it later in the evening or even in the morning perhaps.

Elaine frowned awkwardly and sunk down against the resting Night Fury at her side. She slowly ran one of her hands across the dragon's head while keeping to herself.

She felt so confused by this male. He was so open one minute, playful the next, then he could just as easily become angry or concealed. She wasn't sure what to think with him but she tried to be certain that with time, she'd be able to connect with him no matter how he'd behave or how he felt.

Now she began to feel confused with herself; why did she care about how he felt or how he acted? She was only helping him transport the dragon from one area to another. He was a travel partner for a few days and then she'd probably never see him again, she was getting too easily attached again and this caused her to roll her eyes at herself.

She began to slowly stop rubbing the dragon's head then sat up and held her bent legs to her chest, now looking up so she could take her mind off of all of this by looking at the stars.

Somehow, just looking up towards the stars between the trees and the clouds and weak moonlight was enough to cloud her mind from what she had just overflowed her mind with only seconds ago.

Dragoon had his eyes half-open and originally, his gaze was cast towards the ground but he subtly began to pick his head up to stare at the golden-brown-haired female cross from him. He had to remain cold towards it all, because if he fell... or rather let his guard fall, he'd be broken in one way or another. He just had to stay cold towards her.

The dragon that had literally been resting for only several minutes suddenly sat up and pushed Elaine slightly in the process, causing her to look back at him; he had his ears perked up and looked around, then he dashed off to somewhere nearby. The only reason that they could tell that he had stopped nearby was because his the sound of his paws hitting the ground did not last for long.

Soon they heard a loud thunk noise before the branches overhead rustled and leaves and thin twigs fell from above them. They now looked up and barely saw the dragon's dark figure above them; they could only judge where he was by sound and where the stars were blocked out from what bit of sky they could see from the gaps in the treetops.

The two humans glanced at each other with quirked and furrowed brows, neither of them knew what the dragon was doing or why but soon after, they broke their gaze to try finding the dragon's dark figure in the treetops again. How the treetops were sturdy enough as to hold the dragon's weight was beyond them.

But just as they looked towards where the noises came from, they saw him leap over to a nearby boulder and use his claws to pull himself to the top. If it weren't for the boulder being such a pale shade of gray, they wouldn't have spotted him.

After he pulled himself to the top of the boulder, the Night Fury rested on his stomach at the top of the boulder, he let his head hang down though with the help of the small flickering of the fire and the little bit of light from the sky, they could see off of his reflective eyes that he was gazing skywards.

He only wanted to fly and feel the wing beneath his wings, he yearned to just travel by his wings or at least to fly once. One flight, one beat of his wings without them flinching or twitching or flailing, one glide through the skies; staying stuck on the ground was highly depressing to him if his mind wasn't already preoccupied.

Elaine frowned at the Night Fury with sympathy; her eyes turned to Dragoon again, who had suddenly realized that his guard was down then attempted to put it back up but he was too tired to do so and kept a lowered guard, humming to Elaine in question.

"Dragoon? Do you think if we tried," She paused and had a light frown on her face. "Do you think we could get him to fly?"

The dark-haired male blinked slowly and ran a hand through his hair, his free hand still had a tight hold on the wolf pelt Elaine gave him earlier. Now he moved the hand from his head to rub the thin scruff on his face, then after a moment of thought, he opened his mouth to speak.

"I don't know, Elaine... The muscles in and around his wings are very weak. Even if he does start to fly, it will be a long time until he's able to do so. His wings will have to be able to be able to hold up all of his weight while he's in the sky, and if I had to guess I'd say that he's around... maybe 800 pounds."

"Wow..." She ran a hand through her hair and had her eyes lowered to the fire in front of them. "But, do you think there's hope? Even if it's a slight chance, he'll be able to fly?"

Dragoon yawned as she spoke but still heard her just fine, it took him a second to formutate what he was going to say in response to her. He stared at her and forced his voice to be firm just to capture her attention.

"Elaine." She lifted her head up to look at him, her soft hazel eyes meeting his tired and slowly softening brown eyes.

"Yes?" She asked quietly, rubbing her arm with a slight nervousness just because of the sudden firmness in his voice.

His voice began to soften up again as he noticed her full attention was on him. "He might be able to. It would require a lot of attention and practice and..." He trailed off to yawn again then spoke in a tired slur afterwards, "And all that jazz, but I think if you get him to work on it, it'll pay off."

"You really think that, Dragoon?" Her eyebrows rose up, eyes becoming filled with hope. "That he can really do it?"

Dragoon gave a half-effort smile and lazily nodded his head, his eyes were slowly fluttering shut. "Sure." He began to slouch off to the side slowly. "Think so."

"Great!" She exclaimed quietly, glad that her reptilian friend might be able to fly one day. It was nice to have that thought in mind, that she could assist the dragon in being able to fly.

Her eye suddenly caught Dragoon leaning off to the side and she quickly got up and put her arms out to him, he fell over into her arms and she smiled down at his sleeping figure. She caught the sleeping man from falling to his side, then she began to pull him to the base of a tree and carefully sat him up against it. Oddly, the food that was in Dragoon's lap hadn't fell to the ground.

Anyway, Elaine briefly removed the wolf pelt from his shoulders and dusted it off of what little dirt that had gotten on it. She saw that he adored this pelt so she decided to handle it for a moment.

However, upon the pelt being removed from Dragoon made him moan tiredly and put out a hand to search for the 'lost' pelt. He hadn't known what happend to it and his eyes never opened, but he only moaned and groaned with the loss of the pelt near him. It was almost as if he knew it was taken, which was found to be strange yet oddly endearing by Elaine.

After she dusted the pelt, she laid it over Dragoon's chest and hung it gently on his shoulders. A light smile was on her face as she covered him with the pelt once again, stroking a hand over his head with his fluffy dark hair sticking out in several directions instead of the one.

Once the pelt was on him again, he picked up both hands underneath the pelt and pulled it up to his chin in a childish manner and laid his face into the soft fur once again. He kept cuddling the fur, even in his sleep for some time until he was fully enveloped by rest and was captured by a deep sleep.

Elaine smiled and went to her cart, grabbing her own fur pelt that was slightly worn down from it being used and walked back near the dying fire. She draped her pelt around her shoulders and sat against a tree that was near Dragoon but not too close.

Her hazel eyes turned to look at Dragoon, then to the Night Fury at the top of the nearby boulder. She smiled lightly and muttered a quiet "Good night you guys." Then she slowly fell into slumber.

The dragon was still awake; he was thinking of what the humans had spoke about before falling asleep. How they spoke about his flight; it sounded almost as if Dragoon _wanted_ to help him, but that was highly unlikely and even though he'd said it, it was most likely just the sleep talking.

The Night Fury slowly shut his eyes but kept himself alert so he could watch over Elaine. If this dragon were to trust anyone with helping him take flight, it'd be her.


	6. Chapter 6

As the night rolled on, the moon fell and the morning sky began to brighten with the light of the sun. The dark sky was turning into a plethora brilliant shades of purple, pink, orange and yellow. Many of the colors bled through the clouds in a marvelous fashion. The morning was just as lovely as any other in one's opinion, even if they hadn't been a morning person.

Elaine, as her sleep schedule was well adjusted to waking up early, allowed her eyes to flutter open as she let out a groggy groan. She began to push herself up from the tree she had her back upon and tiredly rubbed her eyes with the back of one of her hands.

Her first thought was her passengers; she turned her head to her right and spotted Dragoon with his soft and fluffy wolf pelt that he recieved the day before. He was still fast asleep and yet somehow, he still had tightly held said pelt beneath his chin.

Elaine smiled softly at seeing this then turned her head away to look at the boulder off to her left; she had her tired eyes wander upwards to the top of the boulder where she expected the Night Fury to be but her tired eyes widened slightly at seeing that he wasn't there. Immediately figuring that the dragon was elsewhere, she shifted her gaze all around her but hadn't seen a trace of the dragon. She felt more alert and immediately stood up, the pelt on her shoulders fell to the ground.

She looked around frantically for the creature; she lost the dragon overnight. She looked towards her cart with no sign of the winged reptile then she looked around where they were again, looking up at the treetops but she hadn't spotted the creature anywhere.

Though Elaine didn't want to awake Dragoon, she had to cup her hands around her mouth and at least call out in a loud whisper.

"Dragon!" She whispered loudly with a bit of franticness. She thought to herself that it sounded ridiculous to call the dragon by the title of 'dragon'. She'd decided that she'd name it once she found it again, regardless of what Dragoon would think of that. "Dragon! Night Fury!"

She didn't want to leave her human companion sleeping all on his own in even the outskirts of the woods but decided that if she was going to wander from him that she wouldn't go off too far.

The hazel-eyed girl looked down at his sleeping figure then slowly began to walk off, being as careful as she could to not make any noise. Elaine glanced back at Dragoon several times as she walked around just to make sure that he was alright.

"Night Fury!" She called out in a sharp yet hushed voice. She hadn't known how else to catch the creature's attention other than calling out to it. "Come here, dragon! Come here!"

She continued to look around then used a palm to hit herself in the forehead. Elaine began to shake her head, her hand still in place above her eyebrows. "Damn! I trusted the dragon to stay with us after I untied him."

With the dragon being a wild creature, she should have figured that the dragon would have run off; but the dragon wasn't supposed to do so. He appeared to be very happy with them, or at least happy with Elaine; why would he have taken off?

His dislike for Dragoon?

A need to survive?

Whatever the case was, he couldn't have gone far. He simply couldn't have run off too far off from where the two humans were.

She looked around one last time, sighing to herself then as she turned to start walking back to Dragoon; but before she reached the spot that he was, she had just barely spotted a tall tree waver in the nearby distance. It was just on the other side of a ledge that was near the boulder where the Night Fury had rested.

Blinking with somewhat widened eyes, she stared up towards the top of the boulder and the ledge; she now noticed that there was a climbing, or at least leaping distance between the two and the ledge was up at a moderate height. It would have taken forever for her to go around it, though the ledge was not very tall, it was indeed very long.

The tree continued to waver and she gazed back at Dragoon briefly then to the tree, the wavering growing slightly more intense as she'd guess that whatever was causing it to move in such a way was getting higher and more unstable the higher the gesture travelled.

The only other thing she could think of was someone cutting that tree down, but either way, she was going to take the chance of that being the dragon and though she conflicted for a moment, she finally gathered up her voice, took in a deep breath and shouted so loudly that her voice strained. "Night Fury! Get over here!"

The wavering of that single tree suddenly came to a stop and Dragoon winced from her shouting, his face going further into the pelt before he began to pick his head up and tiredly groan.

Elaine wasn't quite sure if that was the correct thing to do but she could only hope that it was their dragon that had heard them.

With Dragoon's brown eyes slowly opening, he gazed at Elaine with a face of slight annoyance that his peaceful sleep had been disturbed. He puffed out one of his cheeks in a childish manner and huffed lightly before opening his mouth just enough to groggily speak to her.

"Elaine...? What was that about?" He said, his eyebrows were knitted together and a frown was firm on his face. He was too tired to know what her exact words were but he knew that her shouting was very unpleasant.

She tensed up her shoulders then slowly looked back at him. She didn't want to upset him but decided to just come out and say what it was.

"Well, I was calling out to the dragon. See, I woke up and I didn't see him so I had to call out to him." She had a somewhat unnerved tone as she said this.

"Oh...?" He blinked and yawned, then he put his cheek against the pelt again. He was too tired to completely process what she'd said. "Well, okay."

"Wait, you mean you're not mad?" She asked with surprise; her eyes were slightly widened by his response. "Not even a little?"

A faint grin of laziness was on his face as he shook his head slowly. "No, why would I be?" He mumbled against the fur. "I mean the dragon's only miss- wait, the dragon's missing?!"

His tired mind now fully processed her words and made him bolt up but still have that same tight hold on the wolf's pelt, that same pelt was soon thrown over his shoulders. He stared down at Elaine with so much frustration and worry on his face.

Elaine was now scrunching her head down from his intense gaze, gulping lightly. She hadn't expected him to be so upset, especially if he had bolted up as quickly as he did.

"Elaine." His voice was solid, "What do you mean 'the dragon's missing?'"

"I-I woke up and he wasn't on the boulder over there." She stuttered, she had pointed to the boulder that the Night Fury rested on the night before. "That's where he slept but when I woke up, he was just gone."

His jaw was clenching up a bit with that same frustration and worry that was overwhelming him suddenly. He put his hands firmly on her shoulders and lowered his head to hers.

"Elaine, do you know where he went?" His voice was still as firm as before.

She gulped lightly as she looked up into his brown eyes and shook her head slowly. "No, but I can take a few guesses..." She trailed off slowly.

"Like _where_?" He unintentionally squeezed her shoulders as he asked this, she winced away at the tight squeezing but kept herself from making any noise.

Before Elaine could open her mouth to answer him, she and Dragoon both heard little pebbles and rocks fall down the ledge nearby before a black mass leapt down with a heavy thud. Their gaze immediately followed the dark being as it stumbled somewhat after landing on all fours.

The being turned its head around to reveal its astonishing large and green eyes, the creature was easily recognized as the Night Fury companion. His ear plates were slowly raising up at the two, his head tilting and a frown on his scaly face.

"Like there." She gestured to the Night Fury with her head, grinning in Dragoon's direction now.

He frowned and shook his head, slowly beginning to take notice of their closeness that he hadn't noticed in the midst of his frustration. As he finally came to realize this, he released her and turned his head away from her.

Elaine rolled her shoulders around after she was freed then awkwardly rubbed her arm and looked towards the Night Fury. She saw that he had several scratches, cuts and scrapes on him and wondered how he'd got them. She tilted her head and spoke up, a light stammer in her voice.

"H-Hey, how'd you get those scratches on you, fella?" She walked towards the dragon and pet over his head, looking at all of the tiny injuries that were scattered across the creature's body.

As a response, he looked to the top of the ledge then back at her, then spread out his wings. They unintentionally twitched a bit but not as wildly as they normally would. He seemed to have a bit more control over the useless apendages but that didn't mean that he was now able to fly.

Elaine blinked and widened her eyes with surprise as she seemed to be putting the pieces of the puzzle together. She was surprised that the dragon had gone off on his own to go and try fixing his problem of being flightless.

"You were?" She leaned her head closer to him, blinking once again in disbelief. Though she was blinking, she had a bright smile on her face.

He nodded his head to tell her 'yes' and smiled back at her. She kept her smile then wrapped her arms around the dragon's neck. It was now the dragon's turn to blink with slight astonishment as he gently held her between his chest and his lower jaw in a return hug.

For some reason, this dragon gave Elaine a sense of pride even if he himself didn't have it, she had it for him. It was giving her such a feeling of warmth that this dragon was willing to work himself to achieve what he wanted.

Dragoon was watching them from Elaine's cart, he was already sitting in the same spot as yesterday, his elbows on his knees as he gazed over his shoulders at them. He wanted to get moving as soon as possible; the less time he had to spend around these two, the better.

He spoke to them, barely even looking at them. "Can we get moving now?" Her brows were lowered in faux annoyance, he only wanted to get the dragon returned and he wouldn't have to face the two for much longer. "Weren't we supposed to leave at dawn?"

"Oh, right..." Elaine chuckled awkwardly and released the dragon from her hug. She stood up, gently patting the winged reptile's head then began to walk in the direction of her cart. "Get in the cart, buddy. Let's go."

The Night Fury perked up his ear plates then walked at Elaine's side towards the cart, approaching it at the same time as she did. With a simple glance towards him then at the cart, the dragon climbed up into the cart and laid amongst the items in the back; he was a bit more cautious of what he did now, leaning his head on the top of the side-rail of the cart and looking out.

Elaine gave another smile and pat his head once more before she climbed to her spot in the front of the cart next to Dragoon. She grabbed the reigns and gave the reigns a gentle whip to grab the attention of her horses. The two horses at the front of the cart shook their heads to whip their mane from their line of sight and began to shift before taking off in a slow trot then speeding up some time after they got back onto the trail.

Dragoon glanced at the dragon in the cart, noting that it hadn't any ropes on it. "You're not tying him back up? What if he takes off again? Don't you think-" He wanted to finish but Elaine gently cut him off.

"I don't think he will." She spoke with certainty. "After all, he came back when I called him. I trust him enough to leave him untied."

Dragoon was noticably annoyed but he hadn't said anything. He only brought a hand up to his head and ran that same hand through his fluffy, dark hair. He began to wonder if it all was worth the effort.

However, the cart carried a calm and peaceful silence in the early morning hours, only the woodland creatures around them were making noise and rustling around.

It had remained being this quiet until small chewing and crunching noises were heard coming from Dragoon's direction. Both Elaine and the dragon looked towards him, but he didn't seem to pay too much mind to this. He only glanced towards Elaine and shrugged before he swallowed his food then mumbled a bit.

"I didn't want to let the food go to waste." He explained, looking at the food in his lap then at her again. "It's the food you gave me last night. I didn't finish it so I just saved it for breakfast."

"Oh." Was Elaine's only response, though it was a soft voice of understanding and not a nonchalant way of her just blowing him off.

Dragoon shifted his gaze down to the bit of space that was between him and Elaine. He grabbed food from the other side of him and placed it in that space, the noise of the soft thudding against the cart caught her attention again and she looked down and spotted that it was her remaining food from last night.

"And this is your food." He spoke up again, pulling his hand back to himself after putting the food down. "You sort of dropped it back there so I picked it up and I thought about keeping it for myself but I figured that the dragon and I did enough damage to your stock so... yeah, I decided against keeping it."

Without being aware of it, he was letting his guard fall again. His softened brown eyes looking towards Elaine's curious hazel ones after they looked up from the food he had put down. She stared at him for several seconds then her eyes fluttered once as a soft smile grew on her face.

"Thanks." Was her only verbal response.

She smiled a bit longer until she turned her head forward to watch the trail. One of her hands moved over to grab the remaining cabbage that Dragoon had placed between them and picked it up, lifting it to her mouth and eating it.

"Don't mention it." His voice was growing cold again as he gently gritted his teeth. He was getting very tired of having to keep his guard up when this was his only chance to relax, but had he let his guard fall too much, he'd fall. He truly hated his situation, but he hated it for all of the wrong reasons.

Her shoulders were tense at his cold tone and she swallowed her bite of cabbage after some bit of hesitance. She nodded now and began to slouch, "Okay. I won't."

The Night Fury from the back began to glare at Dragoon, he hated him before, then he almost fell for his words to Elaine just before he slept last night, and now he's being cold to her again which all but angered him more.

The girl had her chin resting in the palm of her hand as her other hand held the reigns to her horses. A low sigh came from her lips but not because of the cold tone Dragoon gave her, instead it was because she was pondering on what name she gave to the dragon.

She had the thought earlier to name the dragon but now she had to think of one. She wanted to give him a moderate name; after all, he'd have that name for the rest of his life so she was required to give him a decent name.

Elaine had even began to mumble name suggestions beneath her breath; it surprisingly hadn't caught the attention of either Dragoon or the Night Fury. She wasn't sure what she'd name the Night Fury.

One of her hands ran through her long, loose golden-brown hair. This was going to be harder than she'd originally expected and that was slightly agitating.

Dragoon stroked his hand over the soft pelt once more. His own, seemingly more important thoughts racing through his head. He was concerned with his group from before he got lost in the woods, how Sanguine would react to Elaine approaching with his capture. He had to think about how he'd explain that to him if things turned out that way.

Elaine continued to mumble possible dragon names to herself, gently scratching her head. The possibilites raced through her head as she mentally flicked through ideas of what the Night Fury's new title would be, she slowly began to develop a small headache from all of the thinking.

In an attempt to free herself from the pain that this gave her, she slouched her posture slightly and let her mind relax, but even as she was relaxing her mind, her mind insisted on wandering.

The dragon in the back of the cart let his head hang down, his eyes looking at the passing trees and the little animals that scampered along there and stared at the large black creature that watched him pass.

Seeing the small woodland animals managed to cause him to shift in his spot, aching to eat some fresh meat around now. He hadn't eaten since the night before and he craved to have a bit more meat to devour, even if it was just a bite of food, he'd have been grateful.

The Night Fury lifted his head to look at Elaine as she drank water from a recently uncorked container. He shifted closer to her and nudged her in the back with his snout with more force than he'd intended; the sudden nudge against her back made her choke on her water a bit and her eyes to widen slightly, some water also falling over the front of her tunic.

Dragoon had seen from the corner of his eye and almost wanted to laugh at the look on her face and the fact that almost a mouthful of water had the front of her tunic soaked.

She refrained from saying anything vulgar so she didn't startle the dragon and looked back at him, the dragon in return opened up his mouth much like a baby bird would do. It took Elaine some time before she processed that the dragon wanted food.

"Oh, you're hungry?" She asked with the utmost of care.

The dragon only nodded at her, shutting his mouth. He was really beginning to truly memorize the head gestures Elaine had taught him.

Dragoon looked over at Elaine and commented "Well, he last ate just a little after nightfall. I can imagine he would be."

"Oh, right. Right." Elaine nodded and reached back into a satchel in the back that reeked of meat then reached her hand in, soon after that, she pulled it back out with a look of glee on her face and fish in hand. "Nightfall!"

"Uh..." Dragoon blinked at her sudden joy and leaned aside slightly, tilting his head. "Excuse me?"

"Nightfall." She repeated but was much more calm this time around as she said it. The large salmon in her hand was held out to the Night Fury, the dragon taking and eating the food he was handed. "I'm calling the dragon Nightfall."

"You're _naming_ it?" Dragoon inquired, raising up one of his eyebrows and a slight bit of annoyance in his voice. "Why?"

Elaine rubbed her elbow with a bit of thought, looking downwards with nervousness at first then lifted her head again and spoke up once again. "I'm calling him Nightfall because it was ridiculous to shout out 'dragon' and 'Night Fury' to get his attention. With a name, he'll be more recognizable, besides, he doesn't seem to mind."

The brown-eyed male looked at the gleeful dragon that was licking the fish oil from his lips, tail swaying from one side to the other then Dragoon looked back at Elaine, sighed and shook his head. "You can't name it, Elaine."

She lowered her brows at him before she spoke up, "And why not?"

"Because if you name it then you start getting attached to it. You two will be seperated in a few days once we get to the sanctuary, it's going to be a lot harder for the both of you to seperate."

She inhaled deeply then released a sharp exhale, "Dragoon, I know. I just thought it'd be easier to recognize him with a name, a tag, a title, anything."

"Elaine, the dragon is nameless." He stated to her firmly, his eyes now boring into hers. "Do you understand?"

As mentioned before, he needed her to understand that her and the dragon would have to seperate very soon, if she didn't understand that then they'd have a much harder time seperating. With the power of a dragon's loyalty, it wouldn't just be a struggle to seperate them, it'd turn into an all out battle.

Elaine shrunk her head away from Dragoon and began to turn her gaze forwards onto the trail. There wasn't much that she felt like she could say in her defense, and even if there was then she wasn't able to find the correct words to use against him.

"Yes, I understand." She muttered as she kept herself shifted away from him slightly then turned a sharp gaze up towards him. "But the dragon keeps his name, no matter _what_ you say. Nightfall will not change."

Dragoon tilted his head down with lowered eyebrows, he was now glaring at her and he was seething at her stubborness. "Elaine, the dragon is _nameless_. What? Are you expecting to keep it? Do you think you can keep a flightless dragon safe, especially with all of the travelling you do?"

Elaine was about to open up her mouth to speak but Dragoon cut her off to continue speaking to her, causing her to shut her mouth once again.

"Don't you know what they say? 'If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a _dead_ dragon.' How can you save a dragon if it can't fly? Your only hope would be to run and that's it!"

She was drawing her head back with a sharp gaze. Her teeth gritted at his tone and the fact that she knew he was right. She wouldn't be able to do much to save a downed dragon, but something that he said got her attention.

"A downed dragon is a dead dragon..." She repeated back to him, "Then how'd he survive? How was this _downed_ dragon able to live for so long? He may not be able to fly but he looks alive to me."

"Elaine..." He growled at her beneath his breath. "I think I need to tell you something..." Whether it was a lie or the truth, it wouldn't matter; he was going to say whatever shut her mouth faster... if she gave him the chance to say anything more, that is.

"What else can you tell me?" She side-glanced at him, her own eyebrows lowering. "Just more about how you feel about me naming a dragon? That is literally _all I did_. I named a dragon and you're becoming so... so... hostile! What is your problem?"

"My problem is _you_!" He had to raise his voice to say this. "You can't bond with the dragon, it'll only get you both hurt. So you need to stop! We're going to have to split you soon and you know that, and don't pin it all on me when _you're_ getting riled up as well as I am."

The Night Fury in the back of the cart turned his head downward to snarl quietly to himself, he was wanting so badly to ram Dragoon off of the cart and leave him behind, he wouldn't have to go anywhere with Dragoon and he could stay with Elaine; he could stay travelling with her whever she went.

Elaine gaped momentarily then rose her voice at the brown-eyed male in return, "The only reason _I'm_ getting riled up is because _you_ got angry, _you_ rose your voice,_ you_ are the one with a problem and you're taking it out on me and Nightfall. Why are you so dedicated to keeping us apart? It's just a bond. A dedication. Wouldn't you know anything about that, sir Dragoon of the dragon sanctuary? Aren't you dedicated to _your_ dragons?"

"Yes, I am!" He thundered then clenched up his jaw, trying to calm himself down to start talking at a lower level. "Elaine, this dragon belonged to someone else long before it belonged to u-... you... He doesn't belong with you, or with me. There is somewhere else meant for this dragon, and that place is the sanctuary. I'm just trying to transport it there."

She narrowed her eyes, her grip on the horses' reigns was tight; she hadn't even known why she was so passionate about wanting to keep the dragon safe. Elaine kept her glare on him and shook her head, her face was not the soft one that Dragoon had encountered the previous day and was instead hard and cold, much like Dragoon had wanted to remain this entire time. A sigh escaped the girl's lips and she urged her horses on.

"Nothing?" Dragoon questioned, curling back his lips in a frown. "Nothing else to say? Really?"

"What else is there to say?" She grumbled without looking at him. Her head was down and her shoulders were slouched down.

Nightfall was watching Elaine's sunken posture with concern then turned an angry gaze over to Dragoon, who was sitting up with tensed shoulders and a clenched jaw.

A protective instinct kicked in with the dragon and he sharply swung his finned tail at the human male, roughly hitting him against his shoulder and even grazing the side of Dragoon's head. It wasn't particuarly damaging but it was enough to hopefully make him back off of Elaine.

The hit made the human male flinch and glare back at Nightfall, who snorted at him in return and draw up his forelegs' shoulders. His green eyes were narrowed and locked with Dragoon's brown ones, both eyes had a cold and unforgiving gaze.

The hazel-eyed girl turned around to look at the two glaring each other in the eye. She huffed quietly but spoke to the Night Fury regardless "Nightfall, let the poor man be. Don't bother him, he won't bother you."

Nightfall looked at her with flattened ear plates and exhaled sharply, he crawled over to Elaine's side of the cart and breathed out heavily, side-glancing over towards Dragoon then looking ahead again. His large head was placed near the front of the cart by Elaine's lap, to which she reached her free hand over to him and stroked over his scaly head with care.

Dragoon sighed quietly to himself and turned his gaze ahead to the trail once again. His head was resting on his palm now.

He wouldn't want to admit it but honestly, he'd strained the bit of emotions he'd felt. That slight bit of compassion he had quickly developed the previous day by just being around Elaine but now he was upset; upset with everything.

Upset with himself for the choices he'd decided to make and for making himself feel this way, upset with Elaine for causing him to open up and caring so quickly, and most of all, the dragon. If it weren't for the dragon escaping, he wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with.

The trail that the group was on now was rather smooth and had only several bumps and jumps because of a few stones and uprooted trees but other than that, it was perfectly fine.

Nightfall gently nuzzled the side of his head into Elaine's outer-thigh. He was breathing calmly but he still laid alert just to make sure that he was keeping a good ear out to watch over Elaine, and he wouldn't hesitate to whack Dragoon again if he raised his voice at her one more time.

It was another unsettling period of silence in the cart. Dragoon's silence coming from his negativity, Elaine's from not wanting to talk to Dragoon and being unaware of what to talk to Nightfall about, and the dragon was silent since he was rather quiet most of the time anyway, not like this winged reptile would be able to speak.

The sun was rising ever higher, shadows changing position along with it. Time was simply passing by as they continued on with their not-so-merry-at-the-moment travels.

The winds were gently blowing against the foliage around them. The noise very common in the scene so it wasn't shocking to them in the least.

As Elaine kept her horses walking along the trail, she noticed that Nightfall had caught the scent of something, seeing how his nose was twitching and he looked rather interested in whatever he smelled.

She smiled at his adorable face of interest and even giggled a bit, she knew that they were nearing a town and the town had a bakery; the best bet she could make was he was smelling fresh bread.

"Smell something you like?" Elaine asked.

Nightfall gave an eager nod of his head and stared ahead with bright eyes; he couldn't remember smelling anything like this and it interested him greatly. It was new and intriguing.

Dragoon now looked over at the two with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't exactly aware of what they meant. "Pardon?"

"There's a town up ahead." Elaine told him, patting Nightfall's head with a gentleness. "He can smell the bread being made so I guess he's interested."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." He said as he nodded more-so to himself.

The Night Fury put his front paws on the cart near either side of Elaine as he stood himself up further and leaned his head further towards the scent of the bread he could faintly smell wafting towards his nostrils. His chest was pressing against the back of Elaine's head and since she only had to shift her gaze up to see him, she did just that and shook her head with a soft smile on her face.

Dragoon shook his head at Nightfall as well, only just seeing the dragon's action from the corner of his eye. He'd almost found it ridiculous that the creature that caused him so much stress, was the same one that was assisting him in feeling almost childish again by just watching the reptile.

But he also had a concern and looked towards Elaine, decided to tell her or rather ask her about his concern. "Elaine, don't you think these people will be surprised to see..." He gestured nonspecifically to Nightfall. "That?"

She watched where he'd gestured then looked back at Dragoon, "You just gestured to all of him."

"I know!" He gave a single sharp nod. "Won't anyone in town be worried about seeing him? Go a little crazy? Anything of the sort?"

"Oh, calm yourself." She spoke in an almost nurturing way. "We'll be just fine. I bet these people have seen stranger things than a single black, fire-breathing reptile."

This made Dragoon blink at her then bring his lower lip up in thought, then he smiled as he noticed that it was sarcasm. "Yeah, I bet they've seen pygmy bears with the power to summon waves."

"And sheep that are capable of spitting acid from their eyes." Elaine laughed lightly, Dragoon shaking his head and laughing lightly with her. "Yep, that town really has seen it all!"

As their laughter died down, they both kept a small smile and looked ahead again, seeing that they were growing nearer to a town. Many buildings were about and spread around in some areas and cramped and crowded in others; it wasn't a consistant structure but that didn't exactly make the little town look terrible.

Now the trio began to catch the scent of the fresh bread simutanously; each of them took a deep inhale of the delicious scent then exhaled with grins on their faces. A meal with fresh bread was beginning to sound exquisite about now.

As they came nearer to the town, Elaine began to spot human figures that stared towards her cart then began to come closer and gather as she came closer to the town. She could already hear the excited clamoring of the people as they awaited to greet her and look at her stock of items.

Her horses pulled them into town and she had a bright grin on her face as she saw everyone around her. Some had taken notice of Dragoon off to her right and a few girls were giggling at seeing him. While others spotted the large reptilian in Elaine's cart and their eyes were wider than some would even think possible.

Dragoon stared out at the structure of the buildings around them, he knew in his mind that they were familiar and when pieces began to come together in his mind, he looked around once again as if for confirmation then he looked down, he began contemplating on what he could do to get away from Elaine for several moments.

"Elaine!" One tall, built man had called to her with a hearty laugh. This man could have easily been mistaken for an ogre with how large he was, only he wasn't as ugly as what 'an ogre' would appear to be. He came up to the cart and roughly patted her on the back with one of his large hands. "Great to have you back!"

Her eyes were wide and she flinched from the pat on her back, much like she always would and matched his own hearty laugh with her own joyous one. She had to return her enthusiasm in another form and playfully punched the man in the shoulder.

"It's great to be back, ol' Benny!" She spoke more with her stomach towards the tall man.

He kept smiling a little longer then pointed towards the reptile in her cart; he said "So, what's with the, uh...?"

"Oh!" She beamed and looked at the somewhat nervous reptile. "See, I'm helping this fellow towards a 'santuary' over towards the north-west. A few miles along the way, apparently. The big guy's no trouble at all."

Aside from that, a tall female with her reddish-brown hair in a bun was standing next to Dragoon's side of the cart, her brown eyes fluttering in an almost flirtatious manner.

"Hi there." Her voice was hushed in an almost singing manner.

Pretending to be interested, Dragoon looked up with a bright "Hi."

"Where'd the little miss over here pick you up from?" She asked in that same voice.

"A forest." He gestured to the dragon in the cart still, "She picked up me and the little woman here."

The woman didn't seem to understand his humor and had her brows knitted together, this made Dragoon sigh and look away. His face now held a deadpan expression, even as other girls began speaking to him.

Meanwhile, Elaine had just about finished speaking with who she'd referred to as 'Ol' Benny' and gestured to her items in the back of the cart. She leapt down from her cart and gestured the dragon off.

"Come on, Nightfall. Let the people have a look at what I've got here." She smiled at the dragon, who seemed to be nervous around so many people. He hopped off regardless and stayed close to Elaine's side.

Some kids around were nearby and were staring at the large winged reptilian with curiosity and fear. Same to say for several other people around, they were too afraid to check her stock.

"Sorry to say that I don't have as much as I normally do, but I encountered a little problem on the way here. Not to say the problem hasn't obtained a solution." She spoke modestly.

Also, it hadn't taken Elaine long to notice that most people were keeping distance then glanced at the dragon at her side. She looked back up and knelt beside the dragon, smiling at the others around her. She put her arms around the reptile's neck in a soft hug.

"Don't worry. He's not going to hurt you." She kept the dragon in her hug and nuzzled her face against the rough scales then slowly released him.

It was some time before a young boy with blue eyes and sandy-colored hair came forward. His shoulders were noticably shaking but Elaine stayed down on one knee and gestured for the boy to come closer to them.

"It's okay. Come slowly." She smiled reassuringly.

The boy was now almost two feet from the creature and his head was turned, glancing nervously at the other people around that were watching. Elaine turned to Nightfall and whispered to the dragon to get closer to the boy.

Nightfall did as he was told and took a few tiny steps towards the child with his head low but his ear plates were perked, and his eyes were large and curious in that same puppy-like gaze.

The closeness of the dragon made the boy's eyes widen from fear and shock. He was ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

On his own accord, Nightfall shifted his head up to the boy's and sniffed at the sandy-colored mess of hair on his head. His breath fanned over the boy's hair gently but the child still flinched from the suddeness of each exhale.

The Night Fury now brought his head back down and smiled at the little boy, his teeth were withdrawn and revealed his gum-filled mouth. It looked silly and it made the boy widen his eyes then giggle at the unusual smile.

Elaine smiled at the scene as well, so did several others that watched. It was endearing to look at, honestly.

Slowly, the boy rose up one of his hands and pet the creature's head. Once the dragon nuzzled his hand, it encouraged the little boy to hug the large reptile. The dragon gently returned the hug as he had done before with Elaine by holding him between his chin and his chest, then lifted his head up to lick over the boy's head affectionately. The lick made the boy giggle, though he was thourogly grossed out by the dragon's slobber.

The kids around nearby laughed as well, then slowly, one-by-one they began to come forward to interact with the winged reptilian. Older citizens even hesiatated before they began to come forward, their fear of the dragon being calmed by its affectionate nature towards the child.

With a smile, Elaine began to stand up again and smiled at the boy, "You were very brave to come forward."

The boy smiled up at her, flattered by what she'd said. He muttered out a small "T-Thank you."

"No," Elaine shook her head yet kept her sincere smile. "I should thank _you_."

She briefly pat the boy's head, which was still damp with dragon spit, then began to look up at her cart once again. People were already bargaining with her on several items now, her business was still going well even though she wasn't as stocked up on items as she was only the day before.

Why, with the business she was dealing with, she hadn't even noticed that Dragoon was no longer there with her.

Dragoon, in fact, was walking towards a building on one side of town. He had the pelt Elaine gave him resting over his shoulders still, he hadn't even felt ridiculous that he was so close with the fur.

He was approaching the door, then he opened the door up and walked into the building, he shut the door behind him.

The building he had entered was a tavern. The aroma of alcohol drifted into his nostrils and he had let out a slow exhale. It was an almost pleasing aroma to him but he wasn't there to drink himself silly until morning, he'd come here for a greater reason.

He looked around the tavern for a moment then walked towards a familiar man with short and somewhat curly light brown hair, this same man also didn't appear to take notice of him as he was busy with others in the tavern and his back was pointed more-so in Dragoon's direction.

Dragoon had came just to the man's side, put a closed hand to his mouth and cleared his throat loudly, trying to gather the other man's attention.

It had succeeded and the man turned his head to gaze over his shoulder at Dragoon. He recognized the man and then turned his body to fully look at him, a bright and even playful grin was on the man's slim, triangular-shaped face.

"Aye, well if it ain't Marth!" The man exclaimed loudly so he could be heard over the other blabbering patrons in the bar. His voice had a foreign accent but not one that wasn't heard before in these parts.

Dragoon gave a sharp gaze and shook his head, shushing him now. He had even wove his hands as to divert him from calling him that but succeeded only in capturing the attention of several drunken men nearby that commented on how ridiculous he looked, but Dragoon was too concerned with his own situation to pay them any mind.

"Ah, right right. _Dragoon_. Dra_goon_." The brown-haired man nodded, making sure to emphasize the 'goon' side of the other male's name. "Tha's right, I forgot."

"Nice to see you too, Eric." Dragoon dismissively waved a hand at him now, rather calm compared to his earlier silent fuss. "I need to talk to you."

"That so?" The brown-haired male questioned, furrowing his brows. He then rose his eyebrows up with interest, "Then let's talk!"

"No, I can't do it out here. We need to talk in privacy." He looked towards the back of the bar where there was door was that led to the back of the tavern, also where much of the alcohol was stored. It would surely be private enough for him to discuss a small matter with the other man. The others that worked in the tavern wouldn't need to come in there too often or at all during their discussion. "In the back. I need to discuss something important."

Dragoon then gestured in the direction of the door. Eric nodded and walked towards the door, opening it and gesturing him inside; Dragoon had done just that and was followed by Eric, who shut the door behind him.

"Thank you." The dark-haired male spoke quietly but with sincerity.

"No problem!" Eric chirped, arms folded in front of his chest and he bounced once on his heels. "So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, you see..."


End file.
